


Three

by fiftyseven (cian1675)



Series: Triumvirate [1]
Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Asphyxiation, Blood and Violence, Breathplay, Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Character Death, Multi, Nipple Piercings, Other, Piercings, mostlyhuman!woohyun, vampire!L, vampire!sunggyu, vampire!sungjong, werepanther!hoya, werewolf!sungyeol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-09-08 17:01:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 47,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8853088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cian1675/pseuds/fiftyseven
Summary: Sunggyu is a vampire, the Master of the City for Seoul, and an influential figure. Or he was, until he runs off one day, unannounced, leaving his responsibilities for Woohyun and Hoya to bear. The two of them do what they can to maintain the power structure, organizing the vamps and wereanimals in Seoul without letting others know that Sunggyu is gone. But there’s only so much a human servant and animal-to-call can do without a third of their power triumvirate, and although they’ve managed the façade successfully for decades, the vampire council eventually finds them.





	1. His unexpected return

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the vampire setting, terms and dynamics are taken from the Anita Blake series, so if you've read that, good. If not, I'll try my best to make sure things are understandable. Feel free to ask for clarifications if needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> _(Cover graphics done by me.)_  
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I.

The dregs of sunlight fading against purple-red skies filter through the curtains, painting the man in front of him with a light glow. Hoya’s already bronze skin looks more golden, and Woohyun lets his fingers lightly trace his forearm.

“How do you feel?” Hoya asks, transferring the tie he had been tying around his neck to loop around Woohyun’s neck.

“Hmm, the same as I usually do,” Woohyun answers as his fingers reach the edge of Hoya’s rolled up sleeve. He walks his fingertips back down towards Hoya’s wrist. Hoya doesn’t notice the distraction, just arranges Woohyun’s shirt collar properly so the tie goes on neatly. One hand firm on the knot, Hoya pulls the length of the tie and they both watch it slide towards Woohyun’s throat.

“Careful now,” Woohyun says, voice just a little thin, and Hoya laughs.

“I thought you got over this already,” Hoya smiles, revealing just a glimpse of his canines.

“Shut up,” Woohyun grumbles, moving to pick up his phone and other things he needs now that Hoya is done fussing over him. He’s almost done, ready to head out when he feels arms wrap around him from behind.

“I love you,” Hoya breathes, voice barely audible against his ear. Woohyun smiles.

“Mhmm, I love you too,” Woohyun replies, tilting his head slightly so he can meet Hoya’s lips. It’s chaste, because they both have work they need to head to, and Woohyun pulls himself back. “Will you be okay?”

Hoya’s chuckle is light but sonorous, and he pecks Woohyun’s cheek before he answers. “Of course.”

 

 

Most nights Woohyun works in a club. His white dress shirt, tie and slacks don’t go with the fancier, skimpier outfits of the patrons or staff, but he does most of his work in the back office anyway. It’ll be more accurate to say he manages the club than that he works here, but it’s all a matter of semantics. The club he manages is a regular club in front, with a smaller area in the back where there are strippers. It’s nothing special, except that this is the go-to place for vampires. It has been years since vampires were declared legal citizens of Seoul, but they’re still not viewed favourably by most. It’s not difficult to guess why, Woohyun supposes. People don’t change that fast. Neither do vampires, actually, even if now they’re technically legal now. They still hang out mostly with their kind. Well, it’s not like Woohyun minds. It’s how he keeps the business running after all. Though he suppose they just really prefer to gather here for night entertainment and packaged blood because this is the not just the go-to club, but the only club owned by the Master of the City.

(Ha, Master of the City, _ha_.)

Anyone would think that the club owned by the master vampire in Seoul would be the safest place around for vamps. Of course they would. What they don’t know, however, is that the Master isn’t actually here anymore.

 

 

Some nights Woohyun actually dances in the club, on stage, but he isn’t in the mood for that today. It’s not really his job anyway, just something he sometimes does as a special when he feels like it. He’s sorting out paperwork and other things in his office when someone knocks on his door.

“Yes?”

It’s Sungjong, which should be alarming. The vampire is second-in-command, ranking just after the Master of the City, and he shouldn’t be wandering around. Woohyun lets his brows furrow.

“What’s wrong?”

“Did you get Hoya’s call?” Sungjong asks, and Woohyun slips his phone out from his pocket. There are two missed calls from Hoya and a message telling him to return home once he sees the text.

“No, I missed it,” Woohyun answers as he rereads the text. Hoya sounds urgent even though his words are calm. Woohyun feels it instinctively, or maybe the psychic link they have isn’t as tightly shut as he thought it was, and what he’s feeling is Hoya’s emotions bleeding through. Woohyun shuffles his work in front of him into a neat stack, then looks at Sungjong. “I guess I have to go back now.”

It’s only when Sungjong’s still accompanying him while he walks to his car does Woohyun actually think to ask, “Why are you here though?”

Sungjong doesn’t beat about the bush, but he’s also an old vampire and they tend to be cryptic. So all Woohyun gets is a “You’ll understand later,” and a sinking feeling that whatever has happened, it can’t be good. Because there’s no other reason why Hoya would send their second-in-command just to get him except for something important. And anything important related to vampires usually means something bad.

 

 

His place with Hoya is a penthouse in the middle of the city, so it doesn’t take Woohyun very long to get back home. He had considered opening their psychic link during the drive there to see what Hoya’s thinking, but then decided against it. He doesn’t know if Hoya is doing something that he can’t be distracted by and opening up the psychic link without warning tends to surprise them still, even after years of practice. Anyway, it’s not like Woohyun can’t wait ten minutes more.

The elevator ride up to his apartment feels longer than it usually does, and Woohyun notices Sungjong looking slightly pinched. It’s as much expression as old vampires show, and Woohyun knows that that means Sungjong is more uncomfortable than he initially thought. Whether it’s because of what Woohyun is about to find out, or because Sungjong dislikes the idea of heading into a penthouse filled with full-length windows, Woohyun wouldn’t know.

It’s distasteful to ask, but Woohyun’s jittery and he figures small talk wouldn’t hurt.

“Are you annoyed by the fact that my house has full length windows?”

Sungjong’s expression doesn’t change when he answers, “It’s night time right now.”

It’s an evasive reply, not atypical for vampires but Sungjong usually doesn’t do this much when he’s with them. Woohyun raises an eyebrow. “Well, there’s still the threat of being stuck there when dawn breaks, and the windows will expose you to light.”

Sungjong blinks deliberately, slowly, when he replies. “It’s not my business where you and Hoya choose to stay –"

The sentence ends abruptly like Sungjong suddenly remembers that he’s not supposed to bring this up, but Woohyun can guess the rest of the sentence anyway.

_It’s not my business where you and Hoya choose to stay now that he’s not here._

 

 

Hoya isn’t in the living room, but Woohyun finds him easily, following his scent to their bedroom. Hoya’s still in the pressed shirt and slacks he was wearing earlier this evening, but the buttons are open at his neck, and his belt is on the bed. Hoya’s expression is tense, but not scrunched like he used to make (that was decades ago, before they got better at keeping a straight face).

Woohyun’s barely past the door before he’s asking, “What happened?”

Hoya looks at him, jaw tight. “We’ve been requested by the vampire council.”

Woohyun stands frozen for a moment. _Requested by the council_. This is worse than he thought. Technically, “requested” is just a polite word they use, because the council wouldn’t hesitate to ensure that they either show up to their meeting, or never show up anywhere else afterwards. But Woohyun’s more taken aback by the fact that they’re even summoned in the first place.

“Why? We didn’t do anything,” Woohyun asks, once he gets over the initial shock.

Hoya smiles, but it’s not the kind that reaches his eyes. “I think _that’s_ why.”

Woohyun doesn’t miss the implied meaning. _Fuck._ “When are we meeting them?”

“In one hour. We need to start preparing.”

 

 

It’s not the first time Woohyun is meeting the vampire council. He has done it before, just never… never without _him_. Woohyun’s scared, scared of what’s going to happen if they go into the meeting with just him and Hoya (and maybe Sungjong if the council lets their second-in-command in). But Hoya assures him that they’ll figure something out. Woohyun wants to ask how – how can they figure this out when they’re missing the one person the council wants to meet – but Hoya strokes a hand down his bicep, and leans in.

“Do you trust me?”

Woohyun’s worried and he knows Hoya is too. But _this_ , this is something he has learnt over the years.

“Yes,” Woohyun whispers, then more firmly, “ _Yes_ , I trust you.”

Hoya’s breath is a ghost against his lips, and then Woohyun’s moving in across the short distance to close the gap. When Hoya runs his tongue across the seam of Woohyun’s lips, he lets them part, lets Hoya in. And that’s when Hoya opens the psychic link between them.

Between the _two_ of them, is what Woohyun expects, waiting to feel Hoya’s thoughts and emotions, but then he’s hit with the immediate feeling that something’s different.

He feels _him_.

He hasn’t felt him or his presence in years, but all it takes is a moment while the link’s still open between all _three_ of them for Woohyun to realise:

Sunggyu’s already on his way here.

The link is closed as soon as it is opened so Woohyun doesn’t get more than a fleeting notion that Sunggyu’s rushing, and Hoya’s _upset_ about something. Except, what Hoya feels has nothing on what starting to boil under Woohyun’s skin right now, because there’s only one reason why Sunggyu is already en route.

Hoya had contacted him before this.

 

 

Woohyun doesn’t speak to Hoya, walking out of the room once the link closes, because he doesn’t trust himself to not say something he might end up regretting later. Sungjong who had been waiting outside the door follows behind, and Woohyun lets him. He’s headed for the wardrobe anyway, and he will probably need Sungjong’s advice. Even if Woohyun’s upset at Hoya right now, they still have to meet the council in an hour, and he needs to be dressed for it.

In the walk-in closet, Sungjong picks up a few pieces for him without asking. Woohyun thumbs through a few items himself, only realising that he’s distracted when Sungjong is holding up hangers in front of him.

“Choose from these.”

They’re mostly black, but also mostly translucent.

“Find me something that shows less skin,” Woohyun says, pushing Sungjong’s selection away. He knows how council meetings go, how vampires are a stickler for old ways and how they expect the master vampire to be the most primly dressed and everyone else to be subservient, a little more exposed, a little more vulnerable as befitting of their “status”. In the council’s eyes, Woohyun and Hoya are just accessories to the vampire, an accessory to Sunggyu. Why would anyone think a human servant and a werepanther are of the same importance as a master vampire? (Even though a human servant can walk in daylight when the vampire cannot, and a were is physically stronger than most vampires, especially a were who is king of his pack.)

Why would anything think they’re not as powerful as Sunggyu?

Woohyun snorts, startling Sungjong slightly, but he can’t find it in himself to care at the moment. He needs time to have a mini breakdown if he’s to be ready for later.

“Here, wear this,” Sungjong says some time after, when he finishes picking a new outfit. Woohyun quickly wipes his eyes, taking the hangers without checking what outfit Sungjong had picked. Neither of them mention it, both pretending that Woohyun is composed as Woohyun heads to the bathroom with his head bowed.

 

 

The last time he had gone to a vampire council meeting was at least five decades ago. Woohyun can’t remember much of it, except that he had felt uncomfortable with how the vampires on the council had leered at him from across the room. He had been topless that day, wearing only a collar around his neck and leather pants split open on the side, held together with criss-crossing silk ribbons. It was when Sunggyu first became Master of the City, and he had wanted to show that he was in control. Woohyun and Hoya had both agreed then, to let themselves be displayed like they’re subservient to him, because it would play out for their security in Seoul later.

Today though, Woohyun doesn’t want to feel vulnerable. He’s already exposed enough without needing the vampire council’s help. So he is glad that Sungjong had chosen a dress shirt that looks almost normal and work-appropriate from the front, even if it’s see-through in the back. It’s a concession; he still has to show skin after all, but if it’s just his back, Woohyun can deal with it. The pants are dress slacks and it’s matched with shiny oxfords. He looks almost like he could just be heading to the club for work, and Woohyun feels a little better. It’s merely a small comfort, but in the face of what has already happened in the short span of tonight, he’ll take what he can get.

When he finally gets out of the walk-in closet after Sungjong does stuff to his hair and rim his eyes with more eyeliner than is really necessary, Woohyun realizes that Hoya is already ready. He’s standing in the living room in a loose flowy translucent white shirt that’s open down past his pecs and skin tight leather pants. There’s a thin collar on his throat, the buckle catching the light when he turns upon Woohyun’s arrival.

Woohyun’s breath catches in his throat at the sight.

But more than how Hoya looks – how he’s actually dressed appropriately instead of complaining like he used to about how backwards vampires are with their ridiculous dress codes – is the outline of a man behind Hoya, almost hidden behind Hoya’s broad outline until Hoya had turned. He has his back to Woohyun, but Woohyun doesn’t need to see his face to know who that is.

Sunggyu.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was never meant to be a plot kind of story, which was why I thought it'll be fine if I borrowed the settings of the Anita Blake series. But apparently my challenge to self to write pwp doesn't work, because you can see what we have instead. And I'm posting this under a pseud because if things do actually get to smut, I don't really want to have it easily searched up from my usual account since that's a name I use for my other non-fanfic related stuff. There's also a chance I might lock this fic for registered users only, but for now, I'll try to keep it public.
> 
> Posting this while I'm rushing to go out so I'll update tags and other stuff later. Anyway, let me know what you think :)


	2. Tense

II.

“We need to go,” is the first thing Sunggyu says.

No hello, no how are you doing, just straight to business.

_Typical._

Woohyun clenches his jaw, trying not to let his anger boil over. He doesn’t even realise his hands have curled into fists until Hoya gently unfolds his fingers and tries to interlace their hands. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. Breathes out.

What Woohyun really wants to do is ask Sunggyu what he is thinking, walking out of their lives without a word those years ago, and then just coming back today, assuming his responsibilities as if he had never left at all. What he does instead is ask the question he needs to.

“Where are we going?”

 

 

Where turns out to be their old place, the one they stayed in before Hoya and him moved (before Sunggyu left). It’s an actual house further out from the city than their current penthouse, and the only reason why they bought it was because it had a basement and neighbours who minded their own business. It is, however, further out than Woohyun remembers it being, and the tension in the car is palpable the whole way, Woohyun keeping mum, Sunggyu in the backseat looking far away, and Hoya focusing on finding the right place because the roads have changed since they were last here. Woohyun hadn’t checked if they still owned the place, but apparently they do, because Hoya drives them straight past the gates.

He really shouldn’t be surprised that it’ll be here. It’s a meeting with vampires after all, and they can’t risk the sun their penthouse windows would have let in when dawn breaks. What he is surprised by is how presentable the place looks, having been left unused for so long.

Hoya turns slightly at Woohyun fingering the curtains, dark and heavy, and answers the question before Woohyun even asks it.

“It’s the pack. I asked them to clean up the moment I got the request.”

Woohyun doesn’t look up, just heads for the door to their basement. He keeps his voice as neutral as he can. “I didn’t say anything.”

Hoya nods, but reaches a hand out to stop him before Woohyun opens the door, flicking his eyes over at Sunggyu. Woohyun blinks at him for a moment, before he steps back. Sunggyu takes the silent gesture and heads down the basement stairs without a word, his coat flapping with each step. The council will expect him to arrive first anyway.

With Sunggyu more than halfway down the stairs, Hoya leans in and whispers, voice tense but probably more tired than anything, “Don’t think I can’t tell what you’re thinking. You were wondering if this place is kept clean because I let Sunggyu stay here. And I can tell you I didn’t. I didn’t betray you.”

Woohyun would say something to that – he knows it’s probably true; Hoya rarely lies to him – but then he remembers how Sunggyu had known about the council meeting early enough to arrive in time, and he thinks Hoya isn’t as guilt-free as he claims to be. Shooting him just a glance, Woohyun starts down the stairs.

“We'll talk about that later. We shouldn’t keep the council waiting.”

 

 

There are couches in the basement, and a mahogany table in the middle. The individual couches are already taken by the members of the council – two men and one lady, none of whom introduces themselves since council meetings are always chaired anonymously – so the only seats left are on the long couch across them. Sunggyu is already seated on it, and Woohyun can see there isn’t enough space to fit both him and Hoya beside.

Woohyun turns to Hoya, raises an eyebrow, and Hoya gives him a look. He presses his fingers into Woohyun’s palms, opening the psychic link slightly, not enough to surprise Woohyun, but enough for him to hear –

_Sorry I couldn’t get more ornate period furniture that would please old vampires and their terrible taste in two hours, okay. I’ll sit on the floor._

Woohyun would laugh at Hoya’s still-present sarcasm in such a serious situation, but he’s still angry and now’s not the time for that, so he doesn’t. He’s about to offer to sit on the floor instead – Woohyun’s not sure if he wants to be pressed beside Sunggyu for the whole meeting – but then Hoya lowers himself onto the floor gracefully, and Woohyun has to take the seat on the couch instead. He puts as much distance as he can between him and Sunggyu without giving the council the impression that he’s avoiding him, and tries not to look pained when Sunggyu rests a hand on his knee. It’s all for appearances after all; he can do this. With the way the council still behaves, Woohyun knows they need to look the part of a harmonious triumvirate for whatever they say later to be taken seriously, so he focuses on that.

At their feet, Hoya probably senses Woohyun’s tension, because he shifts until he’s sitting against Sunggyu and Woohyun’s knees, wrapping his arms around their legs. It comforts Woohyun slightly, the familiar weight of Hoya, and he hopes this is as good a picture as they can hope to present in front of the council. If the meeting is for what Woohyun suspects it’s for, they’ll need all the credibility they can get.

 

 

The council wants to talk about how they’ve been running the city. Well, technically they say they want to know if _Sunggyu_ thinks he’s being too lax on the few rogue vampires in Seoul, and whether he has been too _nice_ to vampires and wereanimals in his territory. The way it’s said, it’s clearly implied that Sunggyu is not doing what the council deems as a good enough job. Except of course, he really hadn’t. It had been Woohyun and Hoya doing all the duties a Master of the City is supposed to handle, the duties a human servant and an animal-to-call are supposed to _assist_ in, not actually undertake (though, Woohyun thinks they did a pretty decent job, if the council only realized something is up after thirteen years). They can’t say that though, not to the council, so Woohyun wonders how Sunggyu will respond to the thinly veiled accusations.

“What you call leniency I call second chance,” Sunggyu smiles, smoothly raising a wine glass of blood to sip. Woohyun doesn’t want to ask whose it is, but he figures it’s probably one of the werepanthers’. The council won’t accept anything but fresh blood, none of the new packaged artificial things, so he knows Hoya must have asked his pack to prepare that. He realizes belatedly that he might be frowning and quickly smooths his expression to one more befitting of a harmless subservient human servant. For once, Hoya’s doing a better job than he is at pretending to be docile, although maybe it helps that he’s the one wearing a collar and draped on their laps while seated on the floor. Woohyun wants to say something, but he knows the council isn’t interested in him, just Sunggyu, so he leans back and waits to see what lies Sunggyu would weave.

And weave lies he does, so effortlessly and seamlessly that Woohyun thinks he would believe him if he hadn’t been the one to pick up the slack Sunggyu had left behind. Still, his own grievances aside, the council seems relatively placated, probably charmed by the way Sunggyu speaks, confident but not cocky, voice smooth and melodious. Only one of the vampires seem a little too serious still, eyes piercing and unblinking as he watches Sunggyu. Woohyun tries not to think too much of that. Some old vampires never fully got the knack of passing off as human, and he’s pretty sure this one doesn’t, the way he doesn’t blink or breathe, just listening to Sunggyu like he’s waiting for the first hint of a slip-up. But Sunggyu, for all his flaws, has always been a smooth talker, and it doesn’t take long for the council to realise that they can’t prove that he had been negligent in his duties.

They spend another hour discussing small talk, or as much small talk as old vampires would, and Woohyun catches some passing remarks about the difference between how things used to be and how they are now. It’s boring stuff, to be honest, and he doesn’t know why the vampires themselves are not already sick of saying the same things over and over. But maybe they feel a need to pretend to be human – at least the one man and lady, not the other unblinking one – and Woohyun tries not to sigh when he sees the lady attempt to flirt with Sunggyu.

 _It’ll be over soon_ , Hoya pushes the thought at him through their link, and Woohyun manages to keep smiling. It helps when Hoya slides his fingers down from Woohyun’s lap to his calf and starts massaging. They had taken their shoes off earlier before entering the house, and Woohyun isn’t surprised that Hoya continues the massage down his ankle to his foot, working his fingers between the grooves of his toes. It calms him down more than he would admit, the familiar motions reminding him of Hoya giving him foot massages on nights when he’s stressed, and Woohyun leans in. He’s relaxed enough that he doesn’t even mind that pressing himself closer to Hoya in front of him brings him closer to Sunggyu.

The lady across the table does though.

“Ah, I see. I apologize if my flirting has displeased your human servant,” she smiles, a little too wide to be genuine, tiny fangs flashing. Woohyun doesn’t know what she’s talking about until he looks down and realise his thighs are pressed tightly against Sunggyu’s and his shoulder is resting on Sunggyu’s arm.

“He is merely reminding me of other prior engagements we have for the night, and I hope it is alright if we ask to leave for them now,” Sunggyu replies unperturbed, easily sidestepping the tricky issue of turning down an older vampire while getting them out of this tiresome meeting. Woohyun plays along, more interested in the meeting ending than anything else, and eventually the three vampires take their leave.

When they are the only ones left in the basement, Woohyun drops the act of being chummy, standing up and dusting off his pants. Hoya eases into a stretch before getting up, legs probably stiff from being on the floor the whole time. Sunggyu remains seated, eyes on anywhere but them.

The tension from earlier in the car is back, and Woohyun would laugh if he remembers how to. It feels wrong, the three of them being in the same room. Or maybe it’s just the feeling of how distant they have become in their years apart contrasting with their current physical proximity that makes the air hard to breathe. Woohyun can’t do anything about the feeling of wrongness, but he can avoid being in the same room, so he nudges Hoya slightly, then makes his way up the stairs.

He’s two steps along, Hoya turning to follow, when Sunggyu finally speaks.

“You are not going to stay?

The anger he had kept tightly controlled before rises back to the surface, and if Woohyun wasn’t already pissed before, he sure as hell would be now.

“I wasn’t the one who walked away first.”

He doesn’t turn to check Sunggyu’s reaction, but he knows Hoya does, because he sees the slightly pained expression Hoya makes later. It’s not his business though. Even if he had pretended to be subservient to Sunggyu earlier, Woohyun knows Sunggyu no longer has any power over him, over _them_. They’re still metaphysically tied to him – there’s no escaping that without one of them dying – but at least emotionally, Woohyun knows he can walk away from this first. He doesn’t have to be the one to stay and wait to get left behind again.

Hoya gives him a concerned glance once they’re in the car, but whatever he’s about to say, Woohyun doesn’t want to know, so he speaks first.

“If this is about Sunggyu, I’m not ready to talk. If he needs to stay in the house because dawn is coming soon, I don’t care, as long as I don’t know about it.”

Hoya sighs, but eventually nods. He looks like he’s about to say more, but then decides to keeps his mouth shut, starting the engine with his lips in a tight line. Hoya’s mood is easy to read when he’s not hiding it, and even without the psychic link, Woohyun knows him well enough to guess what he is thinking about as he drives.

In fact, he can almost hear the affectionately chiding tone Hoya uses when he’s genuinely concerned:

_For all your harsh words, you still care about him more than you’ll admit. Why else would you worry about Sunggyu being in the sun when dawn breaks if you don’t?_

Woohyun would be lying if he says he hadn’t come to the same conclusion himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you guys are confused, a power triumvirate is a metaphysical tie between three - a vampire (usually a master vampire who is sufficiently powerful), a wereanimal (usually king/queen of their pack), and a human servant. It's a link that is forged with some ceremony (doesn't have to be formal, just steps they have to follow) and once the three are metaphysically linked, they have the ability to communicate to each other via their minds (the psychic link). The linking makes everyone tied to the triumvirate more powerful in their respective abilities (e.g. speed for weres), and the human servant and wereanimal both gain the vampire's immortality. The vampire gains a bit of humanity with his ties to his living companions, and usually with it some empathy (old vampires tend to lose their human-ness after a while).
> 
> Some of the above information I hinted to in the chapters so far, but maybe it's not that obvious so I thought I'll clarify here. Anyway, next chapter will be the pwp that this story was originally supposed to be for, so we'll see how that goes. If it's not already obvious, I don't write smut - hence the challenge to self to practice. Don't expect too much. ._. 
> 
> Also, despite the pwp intention, there's still plot going on, somehow, so if you need clarifications for the story, don't hesitate to ask! Thanks for the comments and kudos so far :)


	3. Take what you can get

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut.  
> Warning for breath play/asphyxiation and body piercings.
> 
> I feel like I should write here that breath play in real life is dangerous and has risks involved, which often gets glossed over in fiction and also in this chapter. I'm just going to leave it at that and suggest Google for anything else you might want to know.
> 
> Now that the warnings are out of the way, enjoy~

III.

Woohyun manages to control himself the whole way up the elevator, but the minute the door to their apartment shuts, he’s grabbing Hoya by the too long flowy sleeves, pinning his wrists against the wall.

“Wait,” Hoya begins. But Woohyun already has his lips attached to the rim of Hoya’s ear, and Hoya lets out a gasp, interrupted, before he starts again. “Fuck, Woohyun, we need to –”

_We need to talk first._

Woohyun knows what Hoya is thinking. But he also knows Hoya can easily wrestle his wrists from Woohyun’s grip if he really wants to. After all, Woohyun is still mostly human even if he doesn’t age, while Hoya is a full-grown werepanther and _king_ of the pack.

So he doesn’t heed Hoya’s verbal protests, knowing the other will physically stop him if he wishes to. Instead, Woohyun lets his teeth graze Hoya’s ear, down his neck past the collar, and feels Hoya’s shudder as he finally gives in to Woohyun’s advances.

“Don’t think I’m giving up –"

Woohyun’s tongue draws a gasp from the man under him –

“…I’m still going to –"

A muffled moan this time –

“…get you to talk –”

Woohyun lifts his face from the dip of Hoya’s collarbone, looking up at Hoya’s now half-lidded gaze. “I know. Later.”

Hoya’s reply is to finally pull his arms out from Woohyun’s grip, running his fingers along Woohyun’s cheek as he pulls him in for a long deep kiss.

 

 

They somehow make it to the bedroom, Woohyun’s shirt half unbuttoned and Hoya’s shirt untucked in the process, their hands still around each other, lips fighting for dominance. It’s one of the things Woohyun loves about Hoya, his ability and willingness to take charge – both for serious matters and in the bedroom – but right now, he doesn’t want to submit, doesn’t want to be under control. So Woohyun presses harder against Hoya’s lips, digs his nails down into the flesh of Hoya’s hips.

He had been angry since earlier in the night, angry at the sudden council meeting, angry at Sunggyu for leaving, angry at him for turning up suddenly. But underneath all that anger, there’s a little bit reserved for the man in his arms right now. While Hoya is probably the one he’s least angry at, he had still lied to Woohyun, betrayed his trust a little by contacting Sunggyu without telling him.

It’s just a minor thing, perhaps, compared to everything else he’s livid about, but Woohyun holds on to that anger and uses it to fuel the edge he needs to push Hoya to relent. It’s not easy; Hoya fights him every step of the way. He feels blunt nails dragging down his back – his shirt somehow hanging off his shoulders now even though it was still on him earlier – and Woohyun scraps his teeth against the soft inner contours of Hoya’s lips, sucking hard even after Hoya lets out an _urgent_ sound. Grabbing a fistful of Hoya’s hair, Woohyun _tugs_ , angling Hoya’s mouth so his tongue can dive in deeper. And when Woohyun feels Hoya finally starting to submit, finally letting him take control, all he can think of is –

 _He’s not the person you should be angry at_.

Except…

_Isn’t he?_

Because the thing is, Woohyun has tried reaching out to Sunggyu over their psychic link before. Countless times, in fact, during the thirteen years Sunggyu was gone, and every single time Woohyun had been met with a mental wall, preventing him from making that connection. Yet, somehow, Hoya had managed to get past that wall to contact Sunggyu tonight.

Or rather, _Sunggyu_ had let down that mental barrier for him. For _Hoya_.

But not Woohyun.

So yes, maybe Woohyun is angry at Hoya actually, more than he had been willing to admit. But the metallic tang of blood as he bites too hard on Hoya’s already kiss-swollen lips tastes more like jealousy than anger. In another mood, that’s when Woohyun will slow down, wipe the blood away and attach his lips to some other less-abused part of Hoya’s body. But right now, Woohyun’s too gone to care, and he just licks the blood off the dull teeth marks on Hoya’s lips before he pushes Hoya down horizontal on the bed and kisses him again.

 

 

Their shirts lie hastily discarded on the bedroom floor. Woohyun is still in his slacks, button not even undone as he strains against the zipper, and Hoya’s leather pants have the top clasp unfastened although his zip is still closed. Woohyun hadn’t wanted to undo it just yet, had swatted Hoya’s hands away when they moved to pull down the zip, because he has other plans first. Woohyun shifts his body, his knees making twin dips on the mattress on either side of Hoya’s chest, and lifts his butt from where it had been holding Hoya’s thighs down earlier so he’s now kneeling without putting weight on Hoya. It brings him closer to Hoya’s upper body than his previous position, and Woohyun looks into Hoya’s eyes before he attempts his next move.

When Hoya doesn’t flinch, doesn’t protest at Woohyun reaching down to graze his nails against his throat, Woohyun lets a finger trace a light path around Hoya’s Adam’s apple. Hoya’s breath hitches. Woohyun lets his finger continue down to the black collar that Hoya has been wearing since the meeting, feeling the texture of the leather under the pad of his finger.

“Can I?” Woohyun asks, voice soft, gentle even, despite his earlier mood. Maybe it’s because he knows he’s asking a lot now, knows that this is more his kink than Hoya’s, but Hoya doesn’t even hesitate when he nods. In front of him, Hoya’s gaze is warm, sincere, _tender_ , and Woohyun doesn’t know what to say.

Maybe Hoya already knows that Woohyun _needs_ this, before he realised it himself. It wouldn’t be the first time.

So Woohyun unfastens the collar, leaving the strap just threading through the shiny buckle instead of fixed in place. He looks at Hoya’s eyes, looks down at the smooth column of Hoya’s throat, a lightly pulsing artery running along the side, and hesitates.

But Hoya _knows_.

“I trust you,” is what Hoya whispers, voice raspy from the sounds he had been making earlier, bringing his fingers to encircle Woohyun’s wrist. Hoya’s hand, those three words, that’s all the encouragement Woohyun needs to take what he wants. Gripping the buckle tightly in one hand and the hanging strap in the other, Woohyun keeps his gaze on Hoya, watch his eyelids flutter closed, his breathing slow down, and then Woohyun _pulls_.

Hoya doesn’t resist because he has been expecting it, expecting the shortage of air in his lungs, but his body eventually brings his hands up towards his neck, grabbing instinctively at the pressure on his throat when Woohyun keeps the collar tightened too long. He holds it there for just a second longer, watching Hoya choke, and then Woohyun lets go. The first rush of air into Hoya lungs as he hungrily gasps makes Woohyun harden, and he runs his palm down Hoya’s cheek, kissing his lips lightly.

“You okay?”

Hoya’s still breathing hard, panting as his body takes in the oxygen it had been deprived of under Woohyun’s hands, but he manages to nod. When he finally catches his breath, Hoya gets out –

“Again.”

Hoya’s breath is taken away another three times, Woohyun getting harder and closer each time, but never enough to fully go over the edge. It’s then that Hoya cradles his cheek, gaze slightly unfocused but voice surprisingly stable, if strained, when he says, “Maybe you should let me do it.”

The way his pants tighten painfully at those words doesn’t go unnoticed by Hoya, and it makes Hoya laugh. Woohyun would smack him, but he feels a little bad for the faint bruises already blossoming across Hoya’s throat. He slowly loosens the collar from Hoya’s neck.

“Shall we?” Hoya asks when the collar is finally off, words light. Woohyun can say no, can say he still wants to lead, can say he hadn’t been intending to get off like that earlier because he had purposely kept their pants on before he started the breath play, but he doesn’t find it in himself to protest. Maybe it’s because the worst of his anger has seeped away into angry red marks on Hoya’s tan skin, but Woohyun doesn’t resist when Hoya manhandles him onto his back.

Now that Hoya’s back in control, the look on his face is a lot more playful, and Woohyun almost regrets letting him switch. But then Hoya’s running his palm flat down Woohyun’s chest, leaving hot trails wherever their skin contacts. And then he pinches his nipples, rolling them between his forefinger and thumb, but –

A hiss. Woohyun watches Hoya’s head snap up.

“ _Hyun_.”

“Hmm?” Woohyun smiles innocently, knowing what Hoya’s about to ask.

“Did you change them to silver?”

Woohyun can play coy when he wants to, and he most definitely feels like it right now, because he’s submitting, but he’s not submissive. “Change what?”

“Change your nipple piercings to silver,” Hoya says, frowning at the tiny barbells on his chest.

Woohyun tries not to grin too hard, but he probably fails in front of Hoya’s half-offended, half-confused face as he examines the slight redness on his thumb. Wereanimals don’t take well to silver, just as vampires don’t. They can touch it but it burns. Even though weres generally heal faster than humans, silver is the one thing they can’t heal quickly from, and silver burns take as long to heal as minor burns on a human. Hoya knows this – knows that Woohyun knows this too – because he narrows his eyes at him.

The evidence is already on Hoya’s skin, but Woohyun decides to answer the question anyway. “Yeah, they’re silver.”

Hoya’s eyes grow narrower when his brows furrow. “Why?”

“Because you play with them too much,” Woohyun answers with a shrug.

He’s teasing Hoya right now, enjoying watching him get frustrated with wanting to touch what’s already in front of him but not being able to unless he bears the pain. Teasing aside though, it is actually a very real complain Woohyun has when he can’t wear anything but loose shirts to work because Hoya was too rough on his chest the evening before. He doesn’t get Hoya’s obsession with his chest and the nipple piercings, but Hoya doesn’t fully get his obsession with being choked either. And yet, Hoya still accommodates him, even ties his neckties for him every day, while Woohyun is just here enjoying watching Hoya being deprived.

“Fuck,” Hoya grunts, pressing his palm on Woohyun’s chest but carefully avoiding the silver barbells. He rests his forehead against Woohyun’s clavicle, his hardness digging into Woohyun’s thigh from the movement. “Fuck, you’re going to _regret_ this.”

Hoya’s face is still buried against him, so he doesn’t see Woohyun grin, but Woohyun knows he is all smiles now. _This_ had been the reaction he was hoping for when he had changed his piercings to silver yesterday, before their night got disrupted by unexpected events. But now they’re back to almost normal – as normal as they can be until they talk about tonight’s happenings again – and Woohyun can’t wait for Hoya to fulfill his declaration.

 

 

Later, when they’re finally fully naked sans the collar now around Woohyun’s neck, Hoya pressing into him, Woohyun knows this is how they best fit together. Hoya’s rougher than usual, his pace almost punishing, but Woohyun doesn’t mind. He knows he had probably pushed Hoya’s limits earlier when he had been rough, letting anger cloud his behaviour. And then there was the breath play and silver piercings, and Woohyun really doesn’t mind that Hoya’s setting a faster rhythm than he usually does as he drives him harder into the bed. If anything, Woohyun urges him on, digging his heels into Hoya’s back and angling up to meet each of Hoya’s thrusts.

They are a mess of limbs tangled, sounds uttered, and gasps exchanged, before Woohyun’s stuttering –

“I-I’m close – _euuung_ –”

He doesn’t get a chance to complete his sentence, because Hoya gets what he wants before he voices it, grabbing the collar roughly.

“Do it,” Woohyun almost pleads, not caring how he sounds. Hoya thrusts heavily into him once more before he holds the collar properly. And then he pulls, _hard_.

The leather constricts his neck, and Woohyun feels his mind go hazy. His breath stops, then becomes choked noises, and he’s almost blacking out before suddenly –

Air.

Oxygen.

And Hoya’s lips are on his, demanding and competing with Woohyun’s lungs greedily sucking in air, and he fucks Woohyun so hard the bed shakes. It’s only when they are both spent and satisfied does Hoya drop onto the sheets by Woohyun’s side.

Woohyun feels Hoya stroke his head, feels him push his fringe out of his eyes, but what he doesn’t expect is for Hoya’s warm fingers to lightly dab his eyes, spreading wetness across his cheek. He hadn’t realise that he had cried.

It’s not hard to figure out why though. He can see that Hoya’s thinking of the same memories, giving Woohyun a smile even though it’s one tinged with sadness and loss. It makes his heart ache even as his body hums contently with the afterglow of sex. And if Woohyun lets his tears flow freely, it’s because he can’t help but remember how _Sunggyu_ had been the one with his fingers wrapped around Woohyun’s throat long before Hoya even got brave enough to try.

When the tears stop, Hoya pulls Woohyun towards his chest, pressing a feather light kiss on his forehead. The embrace is familiar enough, comforting enough, but there’s something missing still. Woohyun takes in Hoya’s gaze, aware that they’re thinking of the same thing, the same him. But even as they lie in bed until the morning light fully paints their sheets, neither of them talk about the lingering absence of a third body that would make this bed feel more like home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will most likely lock this fic for registered users at some point (haven't decided when) and if you don't have an ao3 account for some reason, I'm also putting this on [AFF](http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1203655/). The fic is for members only there but AFF accounts are easier to sign up for than ao3 ones so... yeah. Just be prepared that this fic might suddenly "disappear" if you aren't signed in to ao3.
> 
> Anyway, as usual, I'll love to know what you think about this chapter :)


	4. Trouble

IV.

When Woohyun wakes up, the sky is dusky again. His bed is empty. Blinking drowsily, he shrugs off the covers, only slowing down when he realises his body (his neck) aches where they’ve been rough last night. It’ll be useful if he has Hoya’s ability to heal quickly right now, he thinks, gingerly turning his head to see how bad it is. While Woohyun had gained a few non-human abilities with the triumvirate link, superspeed healing hadn’t been one of them. Carefully getting up, Woohyun heads for the shower.

It’s only when he’s clean and dressed does Woohyun follow the smell of food to the kitchen. Hoya is already there, cooking, and Woohyun knows it’s meat on the pan before Hoya tells him.

“Did you add something to the meat?” Woohyun asks, twitching his nose as he sniffs, and Hoya turns to look at him.

“Guess I can’t hide my secret seasoning from your nose huh?”

Woohyun quirks an eyebrow, unamused. “You know my sense of smell has nothing on yours.”

Hoya chuckles, flipping the meat in the pan before he answers, “Yeah. But it’s still a lot better than a regular person’s. So, tell me, what did I add?”

“Some herb,” Woohyun mumbles, easing himself onto the chair while he waits for Hoya to be done. He slides the trivet to the centre of the table so Hoya can set the pan down later.

“Wow, what an answer,” Hoya deadpans, scooping rice into two bowls while the meat sizzles.

Woohyun takes the bowls from him when he’s done. “I can smell better but that doesn’t mean I know what I’m smelling, dork.”

There’s no reply to that but Woohyun hears Hoya’s barely concealed sniggers. Throwing a glare in Hoya’s direction, Woohyun makes a point of sighing exaggeratedly, although he knows his lips are curling into a wide grin.

 

 

They are almost done with dinner (or what is more like breakfast since they work nights) when Hoya says without preamble, “I wasn’t the one who contacted Sunggyu yesterday.”

Woohyun’s still laughing about something they were talking about earlier, so it takes him a while to register the words.

“Wha- What do you mean?”

Hoya looks at him square in the eyes. Woohyun waits. After a while, Hoya says deliberately, “ _Sunggyu_ was the one who contacted me.”

Woohyun frowns at him.

Hoya shifts, body slightly tense. His voice is quiet when he asks, “How did you think I knew about the council meeting?”

“…I thought the council contacted you,” Woohyun says but the moment the words are out, he realises how silly it sounds.

“They have a distaste for weres, if you recall,” Hoya points out simply, eyebrows raised, and Woohyun realises the error in his hasty assumption yesterday. Of course the council hadn’t contacted Hoya. They have always restricted their interactions to vampires only, with only a few exceptions in rare cases. How could he forget that? But this could only mean that they must have contacted _Sunggyu_. And somehow, Sunggyu must have told Hoya about it.

If Woohyun feels the selfish questions of _Why Hoya?_ and _Why not me?_ rising up his throat, he ignores it. Now’s not the time to pick on minor details. Instead, he focuses on the bigger implication of what this means: Hoya hadn’t lied to him yesterday. He didn’t betray Woohyun’s trust. If anything, _Woohyun_ is the one who didn’t trust Hoya enough. He feels his cheeks heat up under Hoya’s understanding look.

“Oh.”

“It’s fine,” Hoya says, reaching over to ruffle his hair. Woohyun ducks his head, staring at Hoya only after his back is turned. The bruises on Hoya’s neck are already gone, no reminder of Woohyun’s burst of anger last night, but he feels guilty all the same.

“I shouldn’t have doubted you.”

Hoya’s back is still turned as he puts their dirty bowls into the sink, but he replies, “I know you were too angry to realise this yesterday. It’s alright. I can understand.”

Woohyun stews in silence for a while, before he thinks the only appropriate thing to do now is to acknowledge that _he_ understands. There’s nothing more to be said that isn’t pointing fingers at each other, and that is not what they need. So he walks over to Hoya’s side and picks up the sponge to start soaping the dishes. Hoya shifts slightly so they can both stand comfortably at the sink. They clean up quietly like that for a while, falling into a comforting rhythm.

But eventually Woohyun has to ask something that has been niggling in his mind. “How did the council even find him though? We spent ages searching for him and we never got any leads.”

Hoya looks up from the dishes he had been drying, contemplative. “I don’t know. That’s what I’ve been wondering too. That and why the council suddenly took interest in how we are running Seoul when they have never found any issue with it for the last thirteen years.”

Woohyun thinks he is probably mirroring Hoya’s worried expression right now, but he can’t help it. Despite how they managed to get over the council meeting with minimal issue yesterday, he can’t help but think that that’s not the end of their troubles.

 

 

Woohyun is in his office, absently scratching at the turtleneck he has on, when there’s a knock on his door.

“Yes?” he calls out, not looking up.

There’s no reply, which is unusual. Whoever comes to his office is at least someone he knows, even if they’re not close, and they have no reason to keep silent. Woohyun glances at the door, hand inching towards the drawer where he keeps a gun loaded with silver bullets.

“Who’s outside?” he calls out, slipping the gun into his hand quietly while hiding it from view of the door. “Come in.”

Of all the people he could have expected, the face revealed by his door opening is not one he thought he’ll see again, especially not so soon.

 

 

◂◂◂

_“What is even the point of having a human in a triumvirate?”_

_“Do you mean to ask, why have a measly human linked to a vampire and a wereanimal, when both the vampire and wereanimal are each stronger than any human can be?”_

_“Well, no I didn’t mean to imply that I’m weak, but thanks for the reminder.”_

_A chuckle. “You’re not weak. Humans are not weak.”_

_“But you just said a vampire and a wereanimal are each stronger than any human can be.”_

_“But what does a human have, which neither of them does?”_

_“…what?”_

_“Humanity, Woohyun, humanity.”_

▸▸▸

 

 

“Why are you here?” Woohyun asks, hand already sliding away from the gun. He doesn’t want to accidentally use it out of reflex.

“This is technically my office,” Sunggyu says, stepping fully into the room then shutting the door behind him.

Woohyun places the gun back into the drawer without looking and slides it closed. “Was,” he corrects, because he doesn’t know what else to say. Sunggyu calmly accepts the correction with a slight tilt of his head. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”

Sunggyu looks at him, unblinking for a while, then shifts his glance. “I know you don’t want to talk to me.”

He forgot how evasive vampires are in general, but Sunggyu didn’t used to be like this, before he left. Woohyun grinds his teeth – an unconscious habit – wondering what he should do. On one hand, this is Sunggyu, and on the other, this is _Sunggyu_.

He unlocks his jaw. Settles for saying, “But you’re still here to talk to me anyway.”

“Yes.”

Just like that. One word. _Evasive_. Woohyun ignores that.

“So, talk.”

Sunggyu looks slightly surprised. Perhaps he expected more resistance, some anger, but Woohyun just wants to not be alone in this office with Sunggyu, and the faster the conversation is over, the faster that will happen, and the faster he’ll be able to breathe normally again.

He lifts an eyebrow in query when Sunggyu doesn’t immediately start talking. After a while, Sunggyu eventually says –

“Do you hate me?”

He hadn’t expected the question, and Woohyun blinks rapidly, surprised. “N-no.” Then a little less hesitantly, “No. No, I don’t.” He hadn’t thought about it, but now that the words are out of his mouth, Woohyun knows he isn’t lying.

Sunggyu nods, like he had been hoping for that. He licks his lips – Woohyun turns away at the pink of his tongue peeking out between the smallest flash of fangs – then asks, “Do you remember the vampire from the council yesterday?”

The sudden change of topic leaves Woohyun confused, but he goes along with it. “There were three. Which one are you referring to?”

“The one at the end. The one who didn’t blink,” Sunggyu says, still standing by the door, but he tucks his hands into his pockets. If Woohyun doesn’t know better, he’ll think it’s a sign of nervousness. But vampires don’t usually show their weakness, and Sunggyu has been around long enough to have gotten over these human habits. So Woohyun merely files the observation away.

“Yeah, I remember him.” _It’s kind of hard not to_ , Woohyun wants to add but holds his tongue. He was slightly creeped out by the guy yesterday, if he’s to be honest, but that’s not something he’ll admit to anyone but Hoya.

Sunggyu nods. Looks down at his feet. Woohyun’s starting to think he’s actually nervous, except vampires don’t do nervous. Not outwardly, at least. He frowns at Sunggyu. With his head still bowed, Sunggyu says, “Be careful of him. He…”

The word hangs in the air. Sunggyu doesn’t continue. Eventually, Woohyun prompts, “He –?”

Sunggyu looks at him for brief second, eyes heavy with words unsaid before abruptly turning away. “Nothing. Just… be careful of him.” Before Woohyun gets to reply, Sunggyu opens the door and leaves without looking back.

 

 

Woohyun’s fiddling with a pen, a couple of hours after Sunggyu has left, wondering why Sunggyu had found him just to warn him of the council vampire. He had called Hoya shortly after Sunggyu left, and he had been halfway through his recount of Sunggyu showing up in his office before he realised Hoya wasn’t even surprised.

“He came to find me too,” was Hoya’s explanation, and that only adds to Woohyun’s confusion. Sunggyu had left for years, ran away without a word and now, the day after he unexpectedly returns, he’s suddenly warning both Hoya and him of a council vampire? Admittedly, council vampires are old and therefore usually _powerful_ , but they’re also supposed to be pretty neutral or they wouldn’t have made it onto the council. Council vampires shouldn’t be something to worry about, unblinkingly creepy or not.

It doesn’t make sense.

Woohyun spins the pen. Chews on his inner cheek. He reserves his nervous tics for when he’s alone or at home, and he’s alone in his office right now so he indulges in the freedom of not having to keep a poker face. Though, speaking of nervous tics, hadn’t Sunggyu been nervous earlier? He had forgotten to mention this to Hoya just now. Woohyun types out a quick message and sends that new information to him.

A while later, Hoya texts back:

_Do you think he’s worried that the council vampire is after his position?_

Woohyun pauses in his work to think. It’s unlikely that a council vampire who is supposed to be neutral would be after a position like Master of the City of Seoul, but it isn’t _impossible_. Still, challenging a current Master of the City for his position tends to involve some proper procedure – one of the few times vampires and their old-fashioned need for rules and keeping to them in the name of honor actually comes in helpful – and Woohyun doesn’t see why Sunggyu would ask _them_ to be careful when challenges tend to be for the master vampire only. He tells Hoya as much, and gets a “ _I don’t know, we’ll see how it_ _goes_ ” in reply.

It’s about as much answer as Woohyun can get without more information, so he decides to stop thinking about it. He’ll get someone to dig for information later. Woohyun’s about to pick up some new documents to look through, when suddenly he feels a sharp pain in his head –

_Hyun!_

Woohyun blinks in surprise.

_…Sunggyu?_

It’s Sunggyu’s thought in his mind all right – Woohyun knows this instinctively the same way he’ll recognise Hoya’s thoughts across the link – but that isn’t even what’s surprising. No, what’s surprising is the _panic_ he senses – not his; _Sunggyu’s_ – and that jolts his heart into an uneasy beat. Sunggyu doesn’t panic easily. But if Woohyun thought he was already scared, the next thought alarms him more –

_Help…me…_

Sunggyu isn’t the kind to ask for help. Not unless –

_Not unless he really needs it._

The psychic link closes before he gets more snippets of panicked half-thoughts, but Woohyun’s already out of his office, breaking into a run.


	5. Blood donor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if it's necessary to warn for this since this is a vampire fic but...
> 
> Blood. Blood on the floor, blood being consumed. Blood. The chapter title is "Blood donor" after all.

V.

Woohyun’s barely up the first flight of steps before he realises he has no idea where Sunggyu is, or where he should be running to.  _Fuck_. He runs up anyway. Eventually he would need to exit from the ground floor if he’s to be going anywhere, so he might as well reach  _there_  quickly first. But the moment Woohyun opens the door to the main floor of the club, he knows he doesn’t need to be going anywhere else, because the music’s turned down, and there’s a crowd gathered near the rear exit.

“What’s going on?” Woohyun asks, voice coming out surprisingly stable and authoritative despite the panicked double-speed of his heart. There are murmurs but no real answer as people turn away from him.  _Doesn’t matter_ , Woohyun thinks, because he’s already pushing past the on-lookers to get to the front. He smells something – something strong, something  _wrong_  – but he doesn’t know  _what_ , until he sees a figure lying on the ground clenching his stomach, a pool of maroon spreading around him. He’s not completely gone, not lying down unmoving. Instead, he’s snarling – if weakly – at the onlookers to  _get away_ , and if Woohyun hadn’t already realised who this is, the voice would have given it away.

“Sunggyu –”

Woohyun ignores the onlookers grabbing onto his shirt, trying to stop him from approaching. Now he knows why they have just been standing around. Only someone with a dying wish would approach an injured vampire. Vampires instinctively seek blood when injured to speed up their healing, and he’s not sure why Sunggyu hadn’t already, except –

Except this is  _Sunggyu_ , and Woohyun can’t even begin to guess if he’s refusing blood because he doesn’t want to drain someone to death, if he’s worried doing so would harm his status as Master of the City (especially after the warning they got at the council meeting yesterday), or if there’s some other reason that Woohyun can’t even begin to fathom that’s making Sunggyu keep people away even as his wound bleeds too fast.

Woohyun has a second to wonder why Sunggyu’s wound isn’t healing – he  _knows_  that Sunggyu had healed from worse in the past – before he remembers that Sunggyu had asked for  _help_ , and that means the situation is more dire than it appears. Which can only mean that Sunggyu needs blood – needs it  _now_  – and if there’s one thing a human in a triumvirate is good for, it’s this. Woohyun’s cuff is unbuttoned by the time his shoes squelch through the coagulating blood on the ground, and he’s pressing his wrist to Sunggyu’s lips even before Sunggyu’s urgent thought sounds through his mind.

_Blood._

There’s a moment of fleeting hesitation from Sunggyu, but then his hands come up to hold Woohyun’s arm in an almost painful grip against his face. Woohyun feels Sunggyu’s lips part against the skin of his wrist. Having experienced this enough times to expect the pain that follows, Woohyun’s mentally prepared. But when Sunggyu’s fangs actually pierce his skin, it  _stings_ more than it should.

Woohyun hisses.

Sunggyu hadn’t done it cleanly. That’s not the issue. The problem is not the effect of Sunggyu’s sloppiness but the  _cause_. And Woohyun can only think of one reason why Sunggyu is this sloppy:

He had been a lot more desperate than he had let on.

Pushing down the sudden panic growing in his chest, Woohyun decides to turn to what he can solve instead. With Sunggyu’s focus now on his wrist, hands no longer covering his torso wound, Woohyun takes the opportunity to examine the damage. He gently pushes away Sunggyu’s jacket. The shirt underneath is soaked through, but Woohyun can see a slash marring the folds of the fabric. He can’t see the wound behind the cut, but he can tell that the slash in Sunggyu’s shirt is a clean one, no jagged fabric edges. It’s only about three centimeters wide. Woohyun doesn’t think a single clean stab like that is enough to render an old vampire like Sunggyu to this level of injury (this level of  _desperation_ ), but when he can’t find any other damage, he can only conclude that there might be something internal or some other injury under Sunggyu’s clothed body that he can’t see. Because even rookie vampires don’t get this badly injured with a single stab, and Sunggyu’s centuries too old for that.

He’s about to open his mouth to ask the crowd if they saw what happened when a wave of dizziness hits him. Woohyun presses the heel of his palm against his head, blinking. The dizzy spell subsides. Blinking to clear his head, Woohyun registers that his other hand is still held firmly against Sunggyu’s mouth. Given the way Sunggyu’s eyes have closed and the way he’s holding Woohyun’s arm too tightly, nails digging into the flesh, it’s not hard to figure out why he’s suddenly unsteady. Sunggyu’s drinking his blood too much too fast. Woohyun watches the rapid bob of Sunggyu’s Adam’s apple, his brain finally registering that Sunggyu needs more blood than he can provide. He briefly considers calling Hoya, but remembers he’s too far, on the other side of Seoul where the were headquarters are (vampires and weres don’t get along that well in general and Hoya and Woohyun had learnt that putting them further away from each other is the best way to minimize conflicts).

Another wave of dizziness quickly hits him and Woohyun knows that he doesn’t have time to dawdle. He quickly calls out, as loudly as he can, “Is there anyone willing to donate their blood?”

Woohyun would say more, but his mind is getting foggier by the minute. When someone steps out from the back, the top of his head peeking above the crowd, Woohyun almost sighs in relief. The guy walks towards them with firm steps, stopping in front of Woohyun, just slightly out of Sunggyu’s reach.

“Clean?” Woohyun manages to ask, hoping the guy would understand what he means.

There’s a nod, then: “I’m a werewolf.”

If Woohyun wasn’t pressed for time, he’ll wonder what a werewolf is doing in a mostly vampire club, but as it is, the answer is good enough. Weres can’t carry blood diseases, and that’s about as clean of a blood donor as Woohyun can hope for. He watches the guy pull out a Swiss Army knife, cut a clean line in his left wrist, then ask, “How do we move him from your wrist to mine?”

Sunggyu’s almost unconscious now, only his mouth and throat still working to suck on Woohyun’s wrist, and Woohyun hears himself say, “Just bring your wrist close to his nose.” He doesn’t know know if it’ll work, but Woohyun can’t show that he’s unsure, so he just hopes that Sunggyu will move when the smell of fresh blood hits him.

Maybe Sunggyu is not as gone as Woohyun thought, because the moment the stranger’s oozing cut is offered to him, he lets up on Woohyun’s wrist and grabs the other one.

 

 

Somehow, Sunggyu actually stops drinking by himself, peeling his lips off the stranger’s wrist after what feels like just minutes. The stranger-werewolf-guy looks a little pale but otherwise not drained (no pun intended) and Woohyun’s feeling a little better now that he isn’t getting his blood constantly sucked out of him. He’s still faint and only barely manages to catch Sunggyu falling, but he can see that Sunggyu’s wound has finally stopped bleeding.  _That’s good_ , Woohyun thinks. But he can’t stay here in a pool of drying blood with a crowd around him, so he tries to stand. He manages without suffering another dizzy spell, but pulling Sunggyu to his feet proves more difficult. Even though he’s no longer bleeding, Sunggyu is still mostly out of it, and he doesn’t seem to be able support his own weight. Woohyun struggles with getting an arm under Sunggyu’s armpit, trying to get him up –  _breathe, Woohyun, you can’t faint now_  – but in the end, it’s the stranger who props Sunggyu’s arm over his shoulder to get him to stand while Woohyun barely manages to support Sunggyu on the other side.

 

 

They make it to Woohyun’s office somehow, Sunggyu’s weight mostly borne by the stranger while Woohyun mainly focuses on keeping himself upright although he still has one of Sunggyu’s arm slung over his shoulder. Of all days, today has to be one where Sungjong is over at the were headquarters with Hoya, and Woohyun doesn’t even want to consider what’s happening to the crowd in the club now that he’s not there. He quickly calls Hoya – using a phone, because he doesn’t think he has the energy to open up the psychic link – and briefly explains what just happened. The stranger sets Sunggyu down on the couch while Woohyun skims over details that he doesn’t want the guy to overhear, and eventually he hears Hoya say –

“I’m coming over now. I’ll get Sungjong to call someone, figure out how to do damage control with the crowd that saw everything. Leave this to me. Just lock the door and rest until I get there.”

Woohyun nods, but remembers Hoya can’t see, so he mumbles a tired  _yeah_. Once he hangs up, he shifts his attention to the stranger. The guy’s standing by the couch, hands by his sides like he isn’t sure what he should do with them, or maybe he’s just uncomfortable about being in the back office of the club. Woohyun doesn’t ask (doesn’t have the energy to). When the guy looks up at him, Woohyun remembers what he had wanted to say earlier.

“Thank you.”

The guy looks at him oddly for a second, then merely shrugs. He looks like he’s ready to head back through the door, but Woohyun thinks the least he can do is find out the stranger’s name so he can figure out how to repay him later.

“Wait, before you go. What’s your name?”

The guy turns back, hesitant, and Woohyun decides to offer his name first.

“I’m Woohyun.”

“…Sungyeol,” the guy replies, and then he’s out of the room.

 

 

Woohyun barely manages to lock the door once the stranger is gone, letting himself slide to the floor now that he doesn’t have to keep up the pretense. His head is spinning, just a little, and he needs rest. He spends the last of his energy crawling to the couch, only remembering when he’s next to it that Sunggyu’s already occupying the whole thing, legs sprawled over the armrest. Woohyun’s too exhausted to care, so he stays on the floor, pulling his knees towards his chest and leaning his head against the armrest before letting sleep take over him.

 

 

When Woohyun wakes up, there’s a slight draft in the room. He figures out why the second his eyes land on the empty space where the door to his office used to be. Said door is now propped against the wall a little beside, hinges askew with visible claw marks etched around the lock.

“What did you do to the door?” Woohyun asks with his eyes still on the open doorway, although he knows that Hoya is beside him because he can scent him.

“How do you know it’s me and not Sungjong?” is Hoya’s answer, and Woohyun suddenly realises that Sungjong’s in his office too. He turns around, and sure enough, Sungjong’s perched on the armrest, holding what looks like a bag of blood that seems to be hooked to Sunggyu’s arm.

“IV,” Sungjong answers before Woohyun even asks. He hadn’t really wanted to know, actually.

“Nutrients,” Hoya offers, and Woohyun vaguely wonders if the psychic link isn’t as closed as he thought because he’s quite sure he hadn’t said anything. Hoya just gives him a tired smile, before he says, “I mean you. You need nutrients. Here, drink this.”

Woohyun takes the bowl and sips – chicken soup, takeout, probably – then realises that Hoya’s reply had confirmed his suspicion that the link between them is open.

“Yes, it is,” Hoya says, and Woohyun would add something, but he’s still busy drinking the soup. He hadn’t realised how hungry he was until he had it, but now that he’s aware, Woohyun’s  _famished_.

“You need to eat,” Hoya says matter-of-factly, merely taking the bowl from Woohyun’s hands once it’s empty and replaces it with an unwrapped sandwich. The sandwich is gone before Woohyun knows, and he’s on a third when Hoya comments, half-jokingly, “You must be really hungry.”

Woohyun slows down, actually chews properly before he swallows this time, before he glares at Hoya. Hoya just smiles, lopsided.

“If it’s any consolation, I had two whole pizzas and five large sandwiches before you woke, and I’m still hungry as fuck.”

Woohyun pauses with the sandwich on the way to his mouth. Now that he’s a little more full and less distracted he sees that there’s empty pizza boxes and food wrappers piled beside Hoya, as well as empty bags of what had probably contained blood for Sunggyu. He must have been pretty out of it if he hadn’t noticed this earlier, and Woohyun’s suddenly glad that Hoya and Sungjong are already here when he woke, because he’s not sure if he could have handled things by himself in that distracted state of mind.

Hoya gives him a look, and Woohyun belatedly realises that he probably heard those thoughts.

“I’m fine,” Woohyun says, more to assure Hoya than anything. He finishes the last of the sandwich in his hand, and picks up another.

Hoya doesn’t comment, just picks up a sandwich for himself.

 

 

It’s later when Woohyun finally feels a little more like his normal self that he remembers to ask, “So, what happened, between me calling you and me waking up?”

Hoya gathers up the empty food wrappers, pushing them to a corner. “The gist of it is, after we got here as fast as we can, Sungjong took care of the crowd upstairs, and I had to break down the door to get in your office because no one has a space key.”

Hoya doesn’t look amused, but if it was him in his shoes, Woohyun wouldn’t have been any different, so he just leans into Hoya’s chest, wraps his arms around his waist.

“Sorry.”

Hoya shifts under him. Woohyun thinks he’s sitting up taller so he can nuzzle the top of Woohyun’s head. “Don’t be. You did what you can in an emergency situation.”

There’s a hand coming up to stroke his arm, fingers skimming over his bicep, and Woohyun closes his eyes at the soothing touch. He feels Hoya relax under him with the rhythm, and he’s almost certain they’re going to just fall asleep when Sungjong clears his throat.

“Sorry to interrupt. I know both of you are exhausted, but we still need to do something about Sunggyu.”

Woohyun sits up. “What’s wrong with him?”

“His wound has stopped bleeding and it started healing after I gave him some blood, but it’s still not fully closed yet.”

Woohyun frowns.

“Shouldn’t he be fully healed by now?” Hoya questions, voicing the same thing Woohyun had been wondering. In fact, now that he thinks about it, hadn’t it been strange that he had only found one minor wound on Sunggyu earlier despite his rather incapacitated state?

“Does he have any other injuries besides the cut in his stomach?” Woohyun asks, turning to Sungjong.

“Not that I could find.”

Sungjong’s reply isn’t comforting. There’s something wrong with Sunggyu if he’s not healing such a minor injury despite the amount of blood he’s consumed. Sungjong’s glance shows that he’s concerned too, and Woohyun doesn’t know what that means.

“Do you think it’ll help if we lie beside him?” Hoya asks suddenly, eyes on Sungjong. Woohyun can’t tell what he is thinking with that sudden question because Hoya avoids his eyes. Not only that, he must have closed the psychic link at some point without Woohyun noticing, because now, all Woohyun has is Hoya’s slightly tense posture and no other clue besides the silent staring contest he’s having with Sungjong. Neither of them moves, but Woohyun senses that there’s some sort of unvoiced dialogue going on anyway.

“What would that do?” Woohyun asks eventually, when neither of them say anything. Hoya is the first to blink, but Sungjong is the one who answers.

“Hoya thinks it might help speed up Sunggyu’s healing if the three of you lie together.” The words are said slowly, as if Sungjong’s afraid of revealing something he shouldn’t.

Woohyun tilts his head, eyes narrowing. “Why?”

This time it’s Hoya who speaks. “You know how weres sleep in a cuddle pile when someone’s injured because it helps them heal faster? I don’t know if it would apply to Sunggyu, but he is tied to me, and I’m a were, so I was hoping…”

“Hoping it’ll help him somehow?” Woohyun guesses when Hoya doesn’t continue. Hoya shrugs.

“Yeah.”

It’s not an entirely illogical theory even if it’s going on a limb, but there’s no harm trying. They would both be weakened while Sunggyu’s injured. It’s one of the effects of being in a triumvirate, sharing abilities but also weaknesses. Even if he doesn’t particularly want to see or talk to Sunggyu at the moment –  _he ran out on us without a word, remember?_  – Woohyun’s still rational enough to know that it’ll be in everyone’s interest to have Sunggyu healed and well as soon as possible. Hell, he had risked draining himself when he had offered his blood to Sunggyu earlier, so they should realise that Woohyun doesn’t just think with his heart.

(Or maybe he did and that’s why he hadn’t hesitated to offer his blood.)

Whatever the case is, Woohyun knows he can figure out what to do with the rest of the Sunggyu problems  _later_. But that would only work if there is a later, when Sunggyu isn’t mostly unconscious or hurt. It’s all perfectly logical and he doesn’t see why Hoya and Sungjong seem uneasy about suggesting it.

So he asks.

Hoya and Sungjong exchange glances, before Hoya says slowly, “Do you remember what cuddle piles look like for weres?”

Woohyun scrunches his brows. “They lie in a big pile?”

Hoya rubs his nape absently. “And…?”

Woohyun doesn’t get what he’s prompting, until he remembers the varied shades of limbs and bodies, tan and pale, intertwined with each other the last time he saw a cuddle pile when Hoya’s right-hand man was injured and –

“They’re naked…?”

“…yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of things happening in this chapter ehh... And Sungyeol appears, hmm :] Anyway, I'll just leave things at that in case I say too much. Lol.
> 
> On a side note, I feel kind of bad that Sunggyu doesn't exactly appear for most of this story even though he's also kind of there...? Like he's there but he doesn't say much. Anyway, that would probably change later in the story.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'll love to know what you think :)


	6. More questions than answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for sleeping beside a cold vampire who's dead to the world and minor consent issues (sort of).
> 
> I mean, technically a vampire dead to the world is a literal corpse, but then again it’s sort of not really a corpse either, so…I don’t know. Anyway, it’s not really described in detail and it’s definitely not necrophilia, but sleeping beside a cold vampire is mentioned, so consider yourselves warned.
> 
> As for minor consent issues, there’s a part where one character isn’t asked before others lie with him, but it’s more because he’s unconscious and unable to reply, and the lying down is completely non-sexual, so I don’t know if it’s a consent issue, but I’m going to tell you it happens in advance anyway.
> 
>  
> 
> Now that the two not-really-warnings are out of the way, on to the chapter proper~

VI.

Woohyun stares at the two of them. It takes him a while to find his tongue.

“Why did you think _I_ will have a problem with that?”

Sungjong’s dry reply is, “You mean, besides the fact that you will have to lie next to Sunggyu _naked_ and that he’ll be literally _dead cold_ when you wake up?”

 _Yup, sure, no problem here at all_ , Sungjong’s eyes seem to say, although the vampire doesn’t actually voice those words.

Woohyun resists tossing out a sarcastic retort in reply. Instead, he arches an eyebrow, unamused. Granted, the idea of waking up next to a cold body – an _unnaturally_ cold body – should scare most people, but it wouldn’t be the first time it has happened. Woohyun has long gotten over his initial discomfort to the idea. Still, maybe Sungjong wouldn’t know that, because he’s not privy to their personal affairs. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of Hoya. Woohyun twists around to look at him, prompting for his answer with a slight jerk of his head.

Hoya merely sighs. “I just thought it’ll be uncomfortable for you. You didn’t even want to talk to him yesterday.”

Hoya doesn’t say it, but Woohyun recalls his own anger from the previous night, how he had avoided Sunggyu once the meeting ended. He supposes it’s not entirely unreasonable for Hoya to assume that Woohyun would be disagreeable. He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Fine. Whatever. I don’t have a problem with trying the cuddle pile thing if it might work, so why don’t we just do that quickly so we can all rest.”

 

 

It actually takes longer than Woohyun thought it would to settle down. Even after they established that both Hoya and him are alright with the idea – they skipped out on asking Sunggyu since he’s unconscious and all, and the whole thing is really for him to heal so if he’s unhappy with the arrangement, they’ll figure out how to deal with that later when he’s awake and well – Sungjong has to help Hoya fix the door back, and Woohyun has to promise Sungjong to follow his instructions for tomorrow.

“This is important,” Sungjong says, and Woohyun would roll his eyes at him for being a nag, but he just swallows the protest because he really does need Sungjong’s help. Even if he and Hoya know more about vampires and their workings than the average person, they still have nothing on Sungjong’s firsthand experience or his age.

“I’m listening,” Woohyun waves a hand, and Sungjong finally continues.

“Going by the rate that Sunggyu’s healing, he would probably still not be fully healed by tomorrow. I don’t know if the cuddle pile would work to prevent that, but if it doesn’t, there’s a chance that he would not wake up by himself when sun sets.”

Where he’s still putting a new set of hinges into the door, Hoya pauses to ask, “What does that mean?”

“If he doesn’t wake up, that means he’s still not well enough,” Sungjong states. Woohyun already figured as much, so he waits for Sungjong to continue. “Since Hoya was weak earlier when both Sunggyu and you were… incapacitated, and you woke up once Hoya regained his strength after eating, I think it’s safe to assume that both of you keeping your stomachs full would help Sunggyu feel better.”

The pile of food wrappers and empty pizza boxes still on his office floor looks like a party of fifteen went through them, but Woohyun knows it was just his and Hoya’s doing. So… food, lots of it. He can do that. It’s easy enough to get something delivered for when they wake up later. Woohyun opens up an app to order something for tomorrow evening, then asks, “Is that all?”

Sungjong shakes his head. “You need to eat before Sunggyu wakes up.” Woohyun shows him the order for food to be delivered at 5pm tomorrow, and Sungjong nods. “After that, if Sunggyu still doesn’t wake up when sun sets, the next thing to do is offer him blood.”

“What kind?” Hoya asks, the same time Woohyun mumbles absently, “I hope the bar upstairs has enough packaged blood because I don’t really know where they keep the full stock.”

Sungjong eyes both of them carefully. “To answer Hoya’s question, he needs fresh blood. As for Woohyun, what you have in mind wouldn’t work. Packaged blood is useless except for starving off hunger because it’s artificial, so there’s no need to worry if the bar upstairs has enough. What Sunggyu needs is fresh blood, and by that I mean blood still warm from the source, so not even my personal stock of blood bags would have been useful, although it’s not like I haven’t already given them all to Sunggyu just now.”

Woohyun thinks Sungjong sounds a little miffed that he’s missing his personal stock of emergency blood, but it’s not his concern at the moment – he hadn’t been the one to ask Sungjong for the blood bags earlier anyway  – so he just asks, “When you say blood warm from the source, do you mean _us_?”

Sungjong shoots him a dry glance. “I was trying to be tactful. But yes.”

Woohyun’s about to volunteer – it is mostly his duty as the human in the triumvirate after all – but then Hoya interrupts.

“I’ll do that tomorrow.”

Woohyun turns to him, a question on his lips. But all Hoya says is, “You’ve given him enough today,” and Woohyun knows that there’s no room for arguments.

 

 

Sungjong leaves shortly after, as dawn is quickly approaching, and Hoya finally finishes putting the door back in place. The lock is still damaged, but at least they have a physical barrier between them and the corridor. Hoya goes up to check that the main doors to the club and the door to the basement stairs are locked, while Woohyun pulls out his gun, checking the bullets and wondering where he can put it while they sleep so that it’s still within reach. When Hoya returns, he halts mid-step upon spotting the gun by Woohyun’s side, but otherwise doesn’t react. Woohyun had thought that maybe he was being paranoid with wanting to have his gun out like this, but Hoya’s reaction makes him realise he’s not the only one wanting to jump at nothing.

They don’t talk about it. Hoya carefully scoops Sunggyu up to lay him down on the carpet – the couch won’t fit all three of them – while Woohyun pushes a chair to wedge under the door handle. It’s still not as good as a lock – well, technically Hoya had managed to break down the lock earlier, so who’s to say that that’s safe enough either – but it makes him feel marginally better.

“We need better locks,” Woohyun mumbles, and Hoya just gives a small smile.

“Tomorrow we’ll find somewhere safer to sleep. You know we can’t go back to the penthouse today.”

Woohyun feels like pointing out that as long as Sunggyu’s around, they’ll never be able to spend a day at the penthouse with all the sunlight that streams into their apartment, but he wisely keeps his mouth shut. He just sits down beside Hoya, and starts taking off his turtleneck.

“Tired?”

“Yeah,” Woohyun sighs, then starts on his belt. Hoya’s removing his own shirt too, and normally Woohyun would let his gaze roam a little, but he’s really too exhausted to. When they’re both fully undressed, Woohyun brings his arms around Hoya, wanting to wrap them tightly around his arms and back. They’re supposed to cuddle Sunggyu, but he wants to hold Hoya like this for a moment, before they sleep. Except there’s a small hiss from Hoya when Woohyun’s chest contacts his back, and he’s quickly pulling back because fuck, he forgot he hadn’t had the time to change his piercings back to titanium.

“I’m sorry,” Woohyun starts, but then Hoya just laughs.

“Shh, it’s fine. You forgot. I know. Let’s just sleep and I’ll complain about this another day.”

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Woohyun belatedly remembers that vampires can’t touch silver either, so he can’t exactly hold either of them even though they’re supposed to keep their bodies in contact while sleeping. He’s about to just remove the silver barbells when Hoya says, “You don’t have to take them out. You can just be the smallest spoon, with Sunggyu behind you, and I’ll be behind him.”

He’s not too keen on the idea of waking up with a cold back, but it seems to be the easiest way, so Woohyun just lies down and scoots himself backwards towards Sunggyu. Sungjong had already removed Sunggyu’s jacket and shirt to clean and dress Sunggyu’s wound earlier, and Hoya had removed whatever else he had on, so Woohyun only feels smooth, if clammy, skin against his back when he finally finds a comfortable position. There are sounds of Hoya settling down behind, then a warm hand comes to rest on Woohyun’s waist. The contrast of cool and warm against his body is jarring, but also more familiar than he wants to admit. Woohyun drifts off to sleep.

 

 

When he wakes up, it’s to the smell of food. Hoya must have collected the delivery already. That puts the time now at some time past five, Woohyun blurrily calculates. It also means he must have slept for at least 12 hours straight, although his body feels none the better for it. Woohyun groans, stretching out his neck and back, ignoring the unmoving body behind him. When he finally opens his eyes and turns towards the smell of food, he sees Hoya seated at his desk, a shirt and pants on as he slurps at noodles.

“The food’s still warm. Come and eat.”

Woohyun picks up chopsticks and practically inhales two bowls of noodles before he realises Hoya’s staring at his neck.

“What’s wrong?” Woohyun touches the area lightly, expecting it to hurt still – bruises don’t fade that easily for him – but it just feels like skin. He doesn’t have a mirror in the office to check, but he can guess why Hoya had been eyeing it.

“It’s not because the bruising got uglier right?” Woohyun asks tentatively, although he thinks he knows the answer.

“…no,” Hoya confirms. “You look… fine.” A pause. “More than fine, actually. Doesn’t it usually take around a week to fade?”

Woohyun nods slowly. But then suddenly something clicks in his mind. “Do you think –”

“Sunggyu?” Hoya asks before Woohyun even finishes his thought, and they both get up to rush over to the carpet. Sunggyu’s still lying on his side, unmoving, looking the same as he did before they went to sleep last night. His torso wound had already stopped bleeding yesterday, but Sungjong had still wrapped it in gauze. That isn’t what Woohyun wants to check though. He hesitantly pushes Sunggyu’s fringe away, then holds the back of hand against his forehead.

_Warm._

“He’s not completely cold,” Hoya echoes his thought as he touches Sunggyu’s arm, puzzled, and Woohyun hears the implied questions.

_Will he wake up by himself later? Is he fully healed now?_

_(What do we do about him later?)_

And then –

_Why did he get stabbed? Why couldn’t he heal such a small injury? Is this related to his warning about the council vampire?_

It’s too many questions to ask while his brain is still sleep-hazy, so Woohyun decides to focus on simpler things.

“Do you think the CCTV would have picked up what happened yesterday in the club?”

 

 

The CCTV footage isn’t terribly helpful, in Woohyun’s opinion. All he sees is a tall black figure hovering near Sunggyu at the bar. They appear to be talking for a while, and then suddenly the guy’s gone, and Sunggyu’s lying on the floor. The low quality of the video and the dimness of the club don’t help either. He’s replaying it, trying to see if there’s anything he missed, when Hoya says, “I don’t understand.”

Woohyun pauses the video. “I don’t understand either –"

“No,” Hoya clicks play, then a short second later, the pause button. “Look.”

Woohyun stares at the screen, but he isn’t sure what he’s supposed to find. It’s just a blur of black and Sunggyu still on the chair although Woohyun knows he’ll start falling in a while.

“Can you see the blade he’s holding?” Hoya asks, and Woohyun shakes his head. Hoya looks at him oddly for while, then relaxes his expression. “Sorry, I forgot you can’t catch such small movements.”

“It’s fine. I don’t have a wereanimal’s reflex, it’s nothing strange,” Woohyun replies easily. “Anyway, what did you see?”

“Just the guy in black fishing for a blade under his coat then thrusting it into Sunggyu’s stomach,” Hoya answers. Woohyun doesn’t understand what’s weird about this, until Hoya adds, “The thing is, if I can see this on a _recorded_ video, Sunggyu should have been able to spot it when it was happening in front of him. A vampire’s reflex is comparable to a were’s, and a digital recording device has nothing on either of our eyes.”

The words take a while to sink in, but Woohyun quickly understand their implication. “So you mean Sunggyu didn’t avoid the stab _on purpose_?”

Hoya presses his lips in a tight line, but wearily leans into him, sighing. “I don’t know. It’s either that or his reflexes are no longer what they used to be.”

Neither sound like good options to Woohyun.

 

 

They finish the rest of the food while waiting for the sun to set, and Woohyun’s jittery by the time it comes.

“Do you think he’ll wake up by himself?”

Hoya’s replacing the lock on the door, busying himself. Woohyun should have thought of doing that earlier – keeping himself busy – because it beats letting his idle mind worry, which is what he had been doing instead. Hoya’s face is screwed in concentration as he fiddles with the new lock, but he mutters, “I hope so.”

Woohyun nods. There’s nothing much else to be said until they find out if Sunggyu will wake up by himself. He paces around the room, then realises it’s not helping, so he sits down at his desk and tries to see if there’s anything he can do. Sungjong took care of damage control last night, manipulating memories so no one would remember that it’s their Master of the City who had been bleeding on the ground. Sungjong had also been the one to make up an excuse for closing the club for tonight. Woohyun’s glad for the efficiency of their second-in-command, but it also means that he doesn’t have anything to do with himself right now. Woohyun is wondering if it’ll help to check the bullets in his gun again, when suddenly he hears movement. Hoya’s faster than he is, so he’s already halfway across the room before Woohyun even stands up from his chair, but even from where he is, Woohyun can see what’s happening.

Sunggyu is awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunggyu’s finally getting some proper screen time (fic time?) soon. :)
> 
> Also, smallest spoon lol. I originally wrote littlest spoon but then I remembered it’s small spoon and big spoon so.


	7. Some answers

VII.

◂◂◂

_“Howon-ah, do you feel any different?”_

_A quirked brow. “What kind of difference are we talking about?”_

_“Keep your mind clean, Howon.”_

_A bright chuckle. “Fine. And why can’t you just call me Hoya? No one uses Howon anymore.”_

_“Habits. You know how it is when you get to hundreds of years old.”_

_A louder laughter. “Please, you haven’t known me for that long.”_

_“Technicalities.” A soft kiss. “Also, twenty years is plenty. That aside, do you feel any different?”_

_“It’s only been a month since.” A pause. Silence for a moment, then, “I assume you’re not talking about the psychic link or any of the other abilities we gained from the joining…?”_

_“…no, not really.”_

_“Right. I figured as much. We tested most of them in the first week anyway. Well, if you’re talking about something other than that, then… I guess I feel more…”_

_“More…?”_

_“…more…alive, I’d think? It doesn’t make sense because I’m not the one without a beating heart –”_

_“Touché.”_

_“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard this before, Mr. I’m-hundreds-of-years-older-than-you-and-a-vampire-to-boot.”_

_“One day your mouth will be the end of you, Howon-ah.”_

_“Pfft, as if you don’t like it when I talk back.”_

_“I do, but that’s not the point.” Laughter, then, “‘Alive’ huh…”_

_“Hmm?”_

_“No, nothing, it’s just, I find it fascinating you chose to use the word ‘alive’.”_

_“Mhmm…and?”_

_“There’s no ‘and’. That’s all.”_

_A long silence. Then, suddenly, “Do_ you _feel more alive?”_

 _A blink. “Yes, perhaps.” And then, more confidently, “Yes… Yes, I think I do. I feel…I feel_ alive _for the first time in a long time.”_

_Hoya laughs. “Fancy that coming from a vampire.”_

▸▸▸

 

 

The first thing Sunggyu says is, “Howon.”

Woohyun feels his heart sink a little for no reason, but then Sunggyu’s adding, “What are you doing here?” and his tone isn’t happy at all. Woohyun shouldn’t feel a little better to hear that, but he does, and he hates that feeling. He pushes it down.

Hoya has reached the carpet in the meantime, and the expression on his face is strange. Controlled, Woohyun thinks, except Hoya doesn’t ever use his blank face unless he’s with strangers or trying to hide something.

_Is he hiding something?_

Woohyun walks out from behind his desk, watching Sunggyu stare at Hoya and Hoya stand with his face deliberately blank. He doesn’t understand what’s going on. He is about to ask, when Hoya mutters dryly, “I should be the one asking you that question.”

Woohyun expects Sunggyu to say something to that, but all he sees is a sudden slump of shoulders, and then –

“I know. I’m sorry.”

He’s caught off-guard by the uncharacteristic apology – Sunggyu never apologizes if he can talk his way out of it – and Hoya’s probably even more taken aback than Woohyun is, because his poker face falls flat. Hoya looks like he’s about to ask questions – Woohyun has a lot of those himself – but Sunggyu’s eyes unfocus for a moment, and that’s all it takes for Sungjong’s words last night to come floating back into Woohyun’s head.

Sunggyu needs blood first.

Woohyun is about to remind Hoya, but it turns out he doesn’t need to, because Hoya’s silently stepping into Sunggyu’s space, bringing his wrist to Sunggyu’s lips. There’s a moment when Sunggyu glances at Hoya, then flicks his eyes to Woohyun, but any hesitation is washed away the second Hoya commands, “Drink.”

And then Woohyun watches Sunggyu fasten his lips to Hoya’s wrist, licking it just once before his fangs sinks into flesh. Hoya doesn’t even flinch. No one says a word.

Only quiet sucking noises follow afterwards.

 

 

“Is there a reason why I’m not wearing clothes?” Sunggyu asks carefully once Hoya’s wrist is no longer attached to his lips.

Woohyun blinks. _Now_ he decides to notice the lack of clothes when he has been comfortably naked for the last ten minutes? Still, he figures Sunggyu deserves some sort of explanation.

“We didn’t do anything to you, if that’s what you are asking. It was just for skin to skin contact so you’ll heal faster.” Woohyun is glad his voice comes out bland and neutral. He’s not sure he can handle anything else.

Sunggyu stands immobile for a moment, but then blinks, _deliberately_ , and starts picking up his clothes to dress himself. Woohyun watches without a word. Hoya doesn’t though.

“We need to talk.”

Sunggyu doesn’t pause, threading his belt through the loops on his pants steadily. He picks up the blood-stained shirt – now an ugly shade of brown – then puts it back down, probably because it’s stiff and unwearable with all the dried blood.

“We have _questions_ ,” Hoya speaks again, voice terse.

“I know.” Sunggyu says, holding his jacket. Woohyun wonders if he’s going to put it on without anything under. He looks like he wants to get dressed and bolt.

The veins on Hoya’s neck pulse, suddenly prominent, and Woohyun wonders if he’s pissed at Sunggyu. He knows he is. It’s why he’s holding himself back, keeping his mouth shut. He’s not sure what would spill from his mouth if he says anything.

Hoya closes his eyes, the veins still bulging, but his voice is collected, if cold, when he says again, “We have _questions_ , and you’re not leaving until you answer them.”

Sunggyu has put on his jacket in the meantime, zipping it all the way up to his neck. He looks between Hoya and Woohyun, but eventually gives in. “Go ahead. Ask them.”

Hoya opens his eyes, his gaze scary, and Woohyun’s glad he’s not the one on the receiving end of it. Sunggyu doesn’t shrink though, just meets his eyes steadily.

“How did you get stabbed?” Hoya asks, eyes unblinking. Of all the questions they have, Woohyun hadn’t expected Hoya to ask this first because they had already seen the CCTV footage. Still, he lets Hoya continue, because he probably has a plan.

(He always does.)

Sunggyu returns the unblinking stare, but he doesn’t exactly meet Hoya’s gaze when he answers, “I got caught off-guard.”

Hoya scoffs. The sound is harsh. “I saw the knife on a _recorded_ device, but you’re telling me you didn’t see it when it was happening in front of you?”

Sunggyu blinks now, probably taken by surprise. “You… _Ah_ , yes, of course. _Surveillance cameras_. Why are you asking me this if you already know what happened?”

Hoya takes a quiet step towards Sunggyu. “Because, you should have been able to avoid that stab.”

Sunggyu stays in his spot, not retreating. His voice is steady when it comes out, but Woohyun thinks there’s the slightest thread of frustration in it. “ _Howon_ , what are you trying to ask?”

A deep breath, and then Hoya’s in Sunggyu’s space, voice low when he grits out, “Did you not avoid the knife on purpose?”

Sunggyu must be really surprised because his mouth opens. “W-what?”

Hoya inches closer still, almost touching Sunggyu. “I guess that’s a no. Which means your reflexes are much slower than they used to be.”

Sunggyu doesn’t reply, just frowns at Hoya’s face mere centimeters from his.

A long silence passes. Woohyun isn’t sure if Hoya is going to push his ground or if Sunggyu is going to break first, but then there’s a pained sound, and he hears Sunggyu exhale, much too softly.

“Yes.” An admission.

He thought he knows what to expect – had even considered the unlikely possibility of Hoya inching forward to press his lips to Sunggyu’s now that they’re standing so close – but what actually happens catches Woohyun off-guard. Hoya drops his forehead onto Sunggyu’s shoulder, and a strangled _hitch_ escapes his lips.

Hoya cries.

 

 

Woohyun can count on one hand the number of times he has seen Hoya cry. Woohyun is the one more prone to waterworks, and Hoya has always been the kind to keep his tears in. It shows, in the way Hoya’s silently hiccupping, the tears quickly dabbed away as soon as they leak out. Only the line of Hoya’s body slightly shaking as he leans on Sunggyu for support gives away how uncomposed he is.

Woohyun wants to reach over, offer his support, but he thinks Hoya wouldn’t appreciate the gesture. Hoya probably hadn’t expected himself to suddenly lose his composure, and the last thing he needs now is a reminder that he did. So Woohyun waits instead, waits for Hoya to stop shaking. Sunggyu seems determined to pretend he hasn’t noticed Hoya crying as well, despite the sobbing figure against him, because he doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t even bring his hands up to touch Hoya, just stays there unmoving. The two of them exchange one silent glance over Hoya’s head, but Woohyun quickly turns away.

When Hoya’s breathing finally returns to normal, Sunggyu tilts his head toward the ceiling, avoiding Hoya’s eyes. Then, voice barely audible if not for the silence of the room, Sunggyu says, “He calls himself L.”

Woohyun steps closer unknowingly. “Who?”

Sunggyu’s still looking at the ceiling, but in front of him, Hoya’s pulling his head back to stare at his face.

“The one who stabbed me.”

 

 

L turns out to not just be the one who stabbed Sunggyu, but the very same council vampire Sunggyu had warned both of them to be careful about.

“Why were you even with him?”

That’s Hoya, voice almost back to normal, and Sunggyu takes a second before he replies.

“We were talking.”

“And did you care to tell him to, you know, lay off whatever he was going to do to us? Or, I don’t know, _you_? Because you totally should have.”

The minute his words are out, Woohyun thinks he should have kept his mouth shut. Unfortunately, there’s nothing he can do to take them back, so he just focuses on not saying more. Unlike Hoya, he can’t control his mouth when he’s upset.

(Or maybe he can, just… not with Sunggyu.)

Hoya shoots him a glare, but Sunggyu’s already answering.

“ _No_ , that didn’t come up in our _conversation_.”

His tone is so dry, Woohyun barely registers it as Sunggyu’s voice. He returns Hoya’s glare with one on his own, but Woohyun does bite down on his jaw so he won’t say anything else stupid. He lets Hoya take over the conversation.

“What did you talk about?”

Sunggyu’s gaze catches on Woohyun’s for a second, then he’s turning back to Hoya. “…things.”

It’s not even a good evasion, and Hoya squints at Sunggyu. “ _What_ things?”

This time, Sunggyu doesn’t reply at all. Hoya waits for the whole of five seconds before he closes his eyes, voice tight when he grounds out, “ _Sunggyu_. What. Things.”

Another five seconds pass.

“What. Things? Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Hoya looks like he’s ready to use physical means to make Sunggyu talk, and Woohyun isn’t sure if he wants it to come to that, so he interjects, “Is he after the position of Master of the City of Seoul?”

A heartbeat, and then: “No.”

“What _is_ he here for then? And why did you ask us to be careful of him?” Hoya asks, eyes still narrowed although he doesn’t appear to be a mere second from resorting to force now.

Sunggyu looks like he’s going to keep silent but then thinks better of it. “Revenge,” he answers, no inflection in his tone to give away what he thinks on the matter.

(Fucking vampires and their one word answers.)

Hoya raises an eyebrow. “ _Revenge?_ Was the stab to kill you?”

“No,” Sunggyu says, voice still as toneless as ever, face carefully blank.

Woohyun’s reaching the end of his self-control, especially now that Sunggyu’s answers are becoming more evasive. He really, _really_ wants to strangle some answers out of Sunggyu but he knows it’s his rage speaking. Given how vampires don’t need to breathe, it would all probably be counterproductive anyway. Woohyun hugs himself tighter.

On the other side of the room, closer to Sunggyu, Hoya’s patience seems to be running thin as well. One moment he’s just waiting for an answer, eyes glowering, and the next moment, Hoya’s suddenly exploding, “ _Fucking_ hell, Sunggyu. Are you going to make this difficult? Do I need to remind you that you’re not the only one affected by this even if you were the one stabbed yesterday? Because in case you forgot, the three of us are still metaphysically _linked_. You dying will drag us both down, and let’s not even talk about how you could have drained Woohyun to death last night when he tried to save you because you got fucking _stabbed_.”

The barely concealed anger in Hoya’s words is palpable, but Sunggyu remains motionless. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a slight twitch in the corner of his lips. “I… didn’t forget.”

“What?” Woohyun’s not sure if he or Hoya said it, but it doesn’t matter.

“I said, I didn’t forget,” Sunggyu repeats, the first crack in his voice. “How can I forget that we are all linked?” There’s a bitter laugh, then, “ _God,_ you have no idea.”

He’s not following Sunggyu’s train of thoughts. “ _What_ are you talking about?”

Sunggyu continues, as if he didn’t register Woohyun’s question. “You have _no idea_.”

Woohyun doesn’t know if he’s talking about L or about them, but Sunggyu’s cracked voice turns self-deprecating when he carries on, words spilling out one after another like a dam has been lifted –

“It’s revenge he wants. _Revenge_. Killing me wouldn’t serve his purpose of revenge. God, no. I wish it was that easy. But no, he doesn’t want to kill me. Not when he wants me to hurt as he did.”

Now Woohyun’s even more lost.

“ _What_ are you talking about?” Hoya interrupts, brows furrowed with concern and not anger this time.

“He wants me to lose someone close to me, the same way he did,” Sunggyu answers with a laugh, except it sounds harsher than a laugh should. “He wants me to lose you.”

Woohyun has no idea who he’s referring to, until Sunggyu stares straight at him.

“He wants me to lose _you_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to wait until I come back home to post this, but I woke up to nice comments on ao3 and AFF so I decided to spend my breakfast posting this before I go out. I like writing this fic a lot (like really a lot), but comments and kudos still make me very happy, so if you have time, I'll love to know what you think of the story!
> 
> Also, I watched a [video of Hoya crying](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxwDZkZvwj8) on Immortal Songs to write part of this chapter and... yeah. Yeah. Woohyun's reaction in the story, to leave him to cry alone because he doesn't think he'll appreciate it being noticed, is basically what I thought as I watched the video. He cries so silently :|
> 
> Ahh, I don't want to end on that sad note, so I'm going to wish Ahn Jaehyo of Block B a Happy Birthday here even though this is an Infinite fic and not a Block B one, but he's the only bias I have that rivals Namu, so I'm still doing it. And if you didn't know, I write Block B fics too, under my [main account](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cian1675/works).
> 
> Hope you guys have fun reading so far :)


	8. Seemingly unimportant

VIII.

“Me?”

Woohyun’s not even sure what he’s asking, but Sunggyu’s answer isn’t what he’s looking for.

“I killed his human servant.”

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

( _A human servant for another human servant._ )

That’s all. That’s _all_. It’ll make sense that that’s the reason why.

( _Of course it would. I’m just a fucking human servant, after all_.)

When an ugly choked laughter sounds through the office, it takes Woohyun a while to realise that it had come from him. There’s nothing to say, nothing to ease the sudden constriction of his chest, so Woohyun just laughs again, bitter and dry.

“Figures.”

 

 

He’s already on the ground floor of the empty club before he realises he’s out of the room, and Woohyun feels more self-deprecatory laughter bubbling out of his chest. He lets them out, lets it all out, lets the unpleasant sounds echo in the empty space until he’s grabbing a counter and leaning his head on it, shaking with each breath.

No one comes up for him; he hadn’t expected them to. Hoya’s probably still trying to get more answers out of their uncooperative third, and Woohyun should be there, offering support, trying to pick up Sunggyu’s fucking mess together (again), but instead he’s here, wallowing in self-pity.

Then again, he hadn’t exactly been particularly useful in his office earlier, so it’s not like they’ll need him. With that thought, Woohyun scrubs a hand down his face, then unlocks the rear exit to head out.

 

 

He could go back to his apartment – _their_ apartment – but instead Woohyun finds himself in a bar. He orders something strong (doesn’t remember _what_ , though it doesn’t really matter) and it burns the whole way down his throat. He orders another. Woohyun’s on a third when he thinks he should have just gotten soju instead, and is about to stand up to find _that_ , when someone taps his shoulder.

“What?” He scowls, hoping it’s not someone trying to pick him up, because that’s the last thing he needs right now. But when he turns, it’s a vaguely familiar face looking at him, arms crossed, and Woohyun has to concentrate before he remembers –

“Sungyeol-ssi, was it?”

The guy seems amused by his slightly inebriated state. “I see you remember me, Woohyun-ssi.” He uncrosses his arm, lets them hang awkwardly by his side before he adds, “Do you have some time to spare?”

He’s not sure what Sungyeol wants, but he owes Sungyeol something for his help yesterday and it’s not like he’s busy, so Woohyun replies, “Yeah, I do.”

 

 

They move to a table nearer to the back of the bar. Woohyun switches to just beer, although he hasn’t really touched it since he agreed to talk with Sungyeol. He wonders if he’s being paranoid (he sure as heck forgot to be, when he was drinking alone just now), but then he remembers it always pays to be cautious. Woohyun waits for Sungyeol to take a chug of whatever he ordered, then asks, “So, what is this about?”

“I just moved here recently,” Sungyeol says. His tone is casual. Woohyun wonders whether his memory has been altered by Sungjong last night. He doesn’t know how much the werewolf remembers from yesterday, or if he had even known the vampire he had donated blood to is the current Master of the City of Seoul.  Woohyun can’t ask him that directly though, so he just hopes he’ll find out as they talk.

“Oh,” is what Woohyun says aloud. “Where were you from?”

“Gyeonggi-do,” Sungyeol answers easily. “It’s not that far, I know. Anyway, since I’m new here, I was wondering if you know any place where they don’t mind hiring weres. It’s fine if you don’t. I’m just asking since I saw you sitting at the bar and I don’t know anyone else so…”

Where the Sungyeol who bravely offered blood last night had appeared firm and decisive, the Sungyeol in front of him seems a little more hesitant. Woohyun wonders if this is just his personality or whether it’s something else. Then again, maybe Woohyun’s just thinking too much. It’s a side effect of managing the vamps and weres in Seoul for years – being constantly wary even if there are no threats.

“Hmm,” Woohyun answers, fiddling with his mug, “Seoul is pretty alright with hiring weres in general. The discrimination isn’t that bad, unless you are trying to find work in kitchens or anything related to healthcare.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Sungyeol says, but then adds in a mumble, “Though it’ll be nicer still if people don’t assume that just ‘cause we’re weres, we’ll be infecting them with lycanthropy, even if some of us would like to be cooks or doctors or whatever.”

Woohyun wonders where that last bit came from. He knows weres face discrimination because if a regular human gets a were’s blood on any open wounds, they run the risk of turning into a were themselves at the next full moon. It’s not a 100% chance that they will turn, but most of the time they do, and their lives would be drastically changed. It’s why the city is still generally wary of weres even if they are more accepting of them now. Still, Woohyun thinks Sungyeol’s words sound a little more personal than that. He’s about to say something in response, when Sungyeol laughs awkwardly.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to say that last bit.” There’s a pause when he drinks a long draw of whatever he ordered, then Sungyeol’s saying, “It’s just. I used to be a doctor. When I was a human.”

He hadn’t expected that. Woohyun nods politely, although he doesn’t know what to say. Sungyeol’s probably not looking for pity from a stranger. He wonders if Sungyeol’s a lightweight, because he looks like he’s not really considering everything coming out from his mouth carefully now that his mug is almost empty. Woohyun doesn’t have anything to offer, but then he hears himself say, “Well, I can’t guarantee you’ll get the job, but the club I work at has an empty spot for a bartender. You can always start looking from there.”

He’s not sure why he tells Sungyeol this, but he figures it works out better than pity, because Sungyeol’s eyes twinkle a little when he says, “Thanks, I’ll go check it out.”

 

 

Sungyeol doesn’t ask for the name of the club, moving on to talk about some other things like how he’s settling in Seoul, so Woohyun presumes he remembers being in the club yesterday, at least, even if he’s not sure what else Sungyeol remembers. Sungyeol doesn’t mention anything else about the night though, so Woohyun decides it’s very likely that Sungjong altered his memory. With how chatty he’s quickly discovering Sungyeol to be, Woohyun is pretty sure he would have asked how Woohyun is feeling after having so much of his blood consumed yesterday, or how the vampire he had helped to save is faring, if he remembers.

So Woohyun goes along with it, not mentioning anything about last night. Instead, he answers Sungyeol’s questions about the city, places to hang out and mundane stuff until Sungyeol’s slightly tipsy. He’s not sure when Sungyeol consumed so much alcohol – Woohyun’s still holding his first mug of beer – but he supposes the guy’s feeling a little lonely and melancholy with being in a new place. He hadn’t expected that he’ll be repaying his debt to Sungyeol by listening to him talk – technically he only promised _himself_ to repay this debt – but Woohyun supposes it’s alright. It’s quite likely that Sungyeol doesn’t know he did Woohyun a huge favour yesterday anyway, if his memories got manipulated. And it seems like Sungyeol’s pretty in need of a listening ear as well, if the way he’s still easily talking after an hour is any indication.

He’s back on the topic of being a doctor again. Woohyun nods, trying to look interested. It isn’t that Sungyeol’s chatter isn’t interesting – it is, sort of – but he did circle back to the same sore point of being fired from his job after he became a were a few times, so Woohyun has heard it before.

“…they fired me, because I got scratched by a werewolf. A werewolf who was my _patient_. It was all an accident but they didn’t care, they fired me anyway…”

Woohyun thinks that’s all he’s going to say, but this time, Sungyeol reveals something he hadn’t in his previous rambles.

“…but maybe they were right in firing me, you know. What good am I as a doctor if I can’t save the people I really care about?”

Sungyeol’s staring at his mug like it contains some epiphany, and then he’s continuing, “He died. He _died_ and I couldn’t save him.”

Woohyun doesn’t know who Sungyeol is referring to, but he doesn’t interrupt. Sungyeol continues, voice small. “He died, and I couldn’t save him. And that’s not even the worse part. You’d think losing one of them is bad enough, but then his death left _him_ broken, and what’s the point of saving us if _he_ ’s broken himself?”

Sungyeol’s voice cracks at the last part, and he drains the last of his mug. Woohyun’s has no idea what Sungyeol is talking about, so he just nods. After a while, Sungyeol rubs his face, and then mumbles, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that. Just…ignore me.”

Woohyun brings his beer to his lips and drinks; a silent agreement. He’s just lending a listening ear after all.

 

 

Woohyun’s phone buzzes. It’s Hoya, asking where he is. He texts him the name of the bar he’s at. In front of him, Sungyeol has stopped consuming alcohol, holding a glass of water instead. Hoya’s reply comes a few seconds later, telling Woohyun he’s coming to find him. He replies an _okay_ , then pockets his phone.

“Feeling better?” Woohyun asks, and Sungyeol nods.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to subject you to two hours of me moping.”

Woohyun smiles. At least the guy’s honest. “It’s fine. I know how hard it is when you’re alone in a new place.”

Sungyeol nods, ears turning a little red, probably from embarrassment. Woohyun’s about to say something when he smells a familiar scent. _Hoya_. He has scarcely turned around before Hoya’s already bringing his hands to rest on his shoulders.

“Who’s this?” Hoya asks, and Woohyun remembers he hadn’t told Hoya much about Sungyeol being the guy who donated blood yesterday. He can’t say that now, with Sungyeol’s altered memories, so he settles for introducing the two of them.

“Hoya, this is Sungyeol-ssi, he’s a werewolf who just came to Seoul. And Sungyeol-ssi, this is Hoya, my boyfriend. He’s a were too.”

“Oh? What kind?” Sungyeol asks, eyes suddenly turning curious. Woohyun’s not sure what it means, but when he twists around, he sees a similar look in Hoya’s eyes.

“Panther,” Hoya answers, voice casual but posture suddenly a little stiff. He’s standing straighter, and Woohyun wonders if this is some wereanimal thing about determining hierarchy, because it sure seems like it, even if they aren’t the same type of were.

“You don’t look like a werepanther,” is what Sungyeol says after Hoya stares him down, although to his credit, he’s holding his ground pretty well.

“Well, you don’t look much like a werewolf yourself,” Hoya trades back.

“Oh yeah? Sorry if I’m not fucking ripped like you’ll expect werewolves to be. Also, aren’t werepanthers supposed to be tall and graceful?”

Woohyun doesn’t know what’s the point of this conversation because they sound like they’re trying to rile each other up. He considers intervening, but Hoya squeezes his shoulder, and Woohyun thinks that’s his cue for letting them sort this out themselves. _Whatever._ They can settle their were-hierarchy thing themselves. Woohyun takes a swig of his beer.

Hoya’s voice is smooth, deceptively pleasant even, when he replies, “Hmm, I certainly don’t have your height but what makes you think I’m not graceful?” Sungyeol is still seated, but Woohyun supposes it’s not hard to tell that Sungyeol’s taller than them both. He wonders, yet again, what the point of this conversation is.

Sungyeol gives a roll of his shoulders, a dismissive shrug. “You look like a werewolf, and we’re more about strength than grace.”

Hoya snorts. “Pfft, _wolves_. Cats always have grace.”

Woohyun’s pretty sure they’re just trading thinly-veiled insults now – insults based on highly inaccurate stereotypes of different wereanimals – because Hoya lets go of his shoulders to walk towards Sungyeol on the other side of the table. It looks like the beginnings of what might turn into trouble. Maybe it’s time to ignore Hoya’s earlier suggestion of letting them sort this out themselves, Woohyun considers. He’s two seconds from breaking them away from each other, but then Hoya slithers on to Sungyeol’s lap, more graceful than humanly possible – more _sensual_ than violent – and he _purrs_ , “How this for graceful?”

Woohyun’s not sure who’s more surprised, him or Sungyeol – probably Sungyeol because _he’s_ the one with a lapful of werepanther – but then Hoya’s already getting off Sungyeol’s thighs, canines showing in a wide smile.

“Glad we’ve established who’s more powerful now, hmm?”

Sungyeol stays frozen where he’s sitting, but Woohyun’s pulled to his feet by Hoya, and he follows him out of the bar, unsure of what he just witnessed.

 

 

“What,” Woohyun asks, once they’re in the car, “was that?”

Hoya’s eye is on the road, but he easily answers, “Were politics.”

Woohyun cocks a brow. “Maybe I should have paid more attention to what you do at the were headquarters.”

He tries to keep his tone bland, but probably doesn’t succeed because Hoya turns to look at him for a second before his eyes drift back to the road. “Are you _jealous_ , by any chance?”

Woohyun huffs. “No.”

Hoya wisely remains silent, and then Woohyun blows out a puff of air. “Fine, I was, but only a bit.”

“Hmm,” Hoya hums. “See, that wasn’t too hard to admit, was it?”

The tone is casual, _too_ casual, and Woohyun’s not sure if Hoya’s _only_ talking about what happened in the bar with Sungyeol earlier. He decides to change the topic.

“Where are we going?”

“Home,” Hoya answers, not commenting on the abrupt switch in conversation topics. “I talked to Sunggyu, after you left. I’ll tell you what he told me, later. But I need to ask you something first.”

Woohyun has already pushed the conversation he walked out of to the back of his mind, but Hoya’s words have the memories of earlier tonight coming right back. “What do you need to ask me about?”

“Whether you want to go home to our penthouse, or to the old house.”

Woohyun turns to look at him, puzzled. “Why the old house?”

Hoya sighs, but answers, “Sunggyu’s staying. We need to settle the issue with L, and it’s within his duties and rights as Master of the City to hunt him down. So he’s staying.”

“Oh.”

They drive around for a little while more, and Hoya’s nearing their apartment block, when Woohyun asks, “Are we going back to the penthouse?”

“Yeah,” Hoya replies, but quickly adds, “I’m not making a decision for you. I’m still waiting for you to answer my question of penthouse or our old place. But I figured we’ll need to come back here either way, whether to sleep, or to pack.”

Woohyun nods. He’s not sure if he wants to go back to their old place if Sunggyu’s going to be there, but he doesn’t feel right staying in the penthouse away from Sunggyu when he knows L is lurking somewhere. Although Sunggyu had said Woohyun is the one L’s targetting, it’s still dangerous for all three of them, Sunggyu included. It’ll only make sense for all of them to look out for each other. The problem is, Woohyun doesn’t know how to handle Sunggyu, doesn’t know how to stand his presence when he has grown used to his absence, and he’s torn.

“Can we… go up to our place first? I need some time to think.”

Hoya parks the car, an understanding look in his eyes when he unbuckles Woohyun’s seatbelt for him. “Yeah, let’s go up first.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Hoyeol scene totally sneaked itself in lol, but it's not unimportant in hindsight. Though actually, nothing in this chapter is unimportant, hence the title. Am I being cryptic enough yet? Lol


	9. A fear of loss

IX.

They take turns showering. Afterwards, Hoya tells him what he got from Sunggyu.

“It’s not much more than what you already know,” Hoya says as he towel-dries his hair. Woohyun pulls out the drawer to get the hairdryer for him. Hoya takes it but doesn’t use it, and Woohyun decides to just dry Hoya’s hair himself.

“Sunggyu killed L’s human servant. He wouldn’t tell me why, but he did, and because of that, L’s apparently coming for revenge. Sunggyu thinks L used his position in the council to call for the meeting two days ago, and to get Sunggyu back in Seoul.”

Woohyun fluffs Hoya’s hair, aiming the warm air from the dryer at his roots. He nods to show that he’s listening, and Hoya continues, “Anyway, he showed up in the club to find Sunggyu, though Sunggyu says he doesn’t know what L wanted, because they barely said anything before he got stabbed.”

Woohyun looks at Hoya through the mirror. Raises his eyebrows skeptically.

“Yeah. I don’t believe that either, but Sunggyu didn’t budge no matter how much I asked, so I left it,” Hoya mumbles. “Sunggyu said he thinks it’s likely that L would be after you, but there’s a chance it could be me too. He says the only thing he’s sure of is that L doesn’t intend to kill him.”

Woohyun puts down the hairdryer, remarking dryly, “Well, apparently he didn’t expect that small stab to almost kill Sunggyu then.”

Hoya’s lips press together. “Yeah. Well. Sunggyu’s weaker than we remember, that’s for sure. He says it’s only because he has been away from us so long and that’s why he’s not as powerful as before when he was supported through the triumvirate linking, but…”

“But?”

“But I think it’s more than that,” Hoya finishes. “Regardless, Sunggyu’s going to stay until we hunt down L, because technically L threatened the Master of the City, so he’s subjected to vampire laws, council member or not.”

Woohyun nods, wrapping the wire neatly and keeping the hairdryer. “I guess that’s our number one priority for now then, to find him?”

“Yeah,” Hoya answers. “That and getting Sunggyu’s strength back to normal. I don’t think having him weakened will help our cause.”

Woohyun closes his eyes, pinches the bridge of his nose. Hoya massages his temples. “I’m not pressuring you to stay with him,” he mumbles softly.

“I know,” Woohyun replies, his voice barely a whisper. “But it’ll work out in our best interests to.”

Hoya hums, an ambiguous sound. He brings his arms around Woohyun’s neck, pulling him in closer. Then there’s a soft kiss on his cheek, the barest press of lips. Woohyun turns his face a little, nudges Hoya’s lips with his own. A brief caress, and then they’re just holding each other.

After a while, Woohyun comes to a decision.

“I think we should stay in the old house.”

 

 

They pack some clothes and toiletries. Woohyun remembers to change out his piercings when he sees the titanium barbells on their dressing table. He’s checking if there’s anything else they might need, when he feels arms come around his waist from behind.

“I love you,” Hoya whispers, resting his chin against Woohyun’s shoulder. It feels familiar, the same way Hoya sends him off to work every day, but there’s something a little different. Woohyun turns his head.

“What’s wrong?”

Hoya mutters something he doesn’t catch into his shoulder. Then, a little louder, he mumbles, “Nothing’s wrong, I just wanted to tell you I love you.”

Woohyun can tell that Hoya’s not being completely honest, but he doesn’t comment, merely covers Hoya’s clasped hands on his stomach with his own. Rubbing his thumb lightly over the back of Hoya’s hand, Woohyun whispers, “I love you too.” Hoya nuzzles his face against Woohyun’s neck, and they stay like that for a while.

Eventually though, Woohyun can’t take it, can’t take not knowing what’s on Hoya’s mind. He slowly loosens Hoya’s arms around him, turning to face him.

“You’re bothered by something,” Woohyun guesses, his tone light. Hoya eyes flicker up, then lowers again. His lips part.

Exhales.

“…guess I’m not very good at hiding my moods huh.”

Woohyun brushes his fingers against Hoya’s cheek. Smiles, just a tiny quirk of his lips. “No, I’m just very good at reading you,” he murmurs, thumb stroking Hoya’s cheekbone. It earns him a smile, Hoya’s body relaxing into Woohyun’s arms. It lasts for about two heartbeats, but then Hoya’s expression darkens again. Woohyun wraps himself tighter around Hoya. He doesn’t press, waits instead for Hoya to tell him what’s weighing on his mind.

When Hoya speaks, his words are hesitant, his voice small. “…I didn’t tell you this yesterday, but I… I was so scared. When I found you in the office, you were so pale, and you wouldn’t wake up for the longest time. And…” Hoya squeezes his eyes shut. Swallows, like it’s hard to speak, then shakily continues, “I-I was… so scared I’d lose you.”

Hoya’s voice is so soft, it’s barely there, but Woohyun hears the fear in it anyway. He pulls the man in front of him even closer, feels strong arms embrace him back. They hold each other like that, like they never want to let go, until Woohyun’s chest is too tight, and Hoya’s arms are shaking. And even after that, they hold on some more, hold on to each other tight like it’s a promise they can make.

 

 

They end up lying in bed for a while, just Hoya laying his head against Woohyun’s chest as Woohyun strokes Hoya’s head. They still have time before sunrise, which Woohyun presumes is when they want to get to their old house by. It’ll be best to let Sunggyu know they’d be staying there before he retires for the day after all. Hoya’s eyes are closed, but Woohyun knows he isn’t asleep. The sound of his breathing is relaxed but not slow enough. When Hoya slowly trails his fingers down his side, Woohyun knows for sure that Hoya isn’t asleep.

“Can I…?” Hoya asks.

It could mean anything – Woohyun’s good at reading Hoya but there’ll always be that little bit of unpredictability called autonomy and spontaneity so he doesn’t know what Hoya’s asking – but Woohyun is already breathing a yes into the top of Hoya’s head before the question is finished.

 

 

“I love you so much,” is what Hoya says, as he crawls onto Woohyun’s chest. His breathing is slightly uneven, tickling Woohyun’s cheek with each exhale. Woohyun reaches up, runs a palm down Hoya’s back. His other hand cradles Hoya’s nape, gently pulling him down so he can mouth his reply in the curve where Hoya’s neck meets his shoulder. They take their time removing their clothes, whispering sweet nothings into each other’s skin, and Woohyun licks a wet stripe across the shell of Hoya’s ear.

“Love you –”

Above him, Hoya quivers, and Woohyun presses a chaste kiss to his temple.

“Love you –”

Another kiss, on his eyelid –

“So –”

One on his cheek this time –

“So –”

One more, on the tip of Hoya’s nose –

“Much.”

He punctuates the last word with a soft press against Hoya’s mouth. Woohyun feels Hoya sigh against him, a pleasant sound, and then his lips part –

“Me too.”

When their mouths meet again, it’s sweet, but then a hand comes up to hold Woohyun’s shoulder down onto the bed. Woohyun makes a surprised sound, trapped between the bed and Hoya’s body. Then, Hoya’s lips leave his, travelling down to leave small kisses against his neck, on his chest and –

“ _Ahh_ –”

Woohyun’s not sure if he wants to push Hoya away or bring him closer when he mouths at his chest, blowing small puffs of air on his nipple. But then Hoya’s closing his mouth around the nub, softly sucking, and Woohyun’s covering his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Don’t do that, I want to hear you,” Hoya says, pulling his hand away, and Woohyun whines because Hoya has his other palm rubbing his chest.

“…more,” Woohyun urges, and Hoya smiles, nice and slow like the cat that got the cream. Woohyun has one second to admire his pleased expression, before Hoya’s drawing one nipple between his teeth while his deft fingers rolls the other. When Hoya suddenly sucks hard and _wet_ , tongue sliding over his piercing, and then _tugs_ , Woohyun’s not sure who makes more noise – him or Hoya. All he knows is that there’re too many sensations on his chest, and Woohyun throws his head back, mouth open in a breathless moan as he leans deeper into the pillow. His back arches up, pushing him closer to Hoya, closer to the heat of his mouth, and then Hoya does _something_ to his chest.

Woohyun’s hand wildly catches on to Hoya’s hair, fingers automatically curling to _grip_ because he doesn’t know what else to do. It feels so _good_. So good and not enough at the same time, and Woohyun’s making noises that don’t mean anything because he doesn’t want Hoya to stop even though he’s not sure how much more he can stand. Then, Hoya suddenly detaches his mouth from Woohyun’s now too sensitive nipple, and Woohyun breathes again, one long draw of air, before he feels something close around the other side of his chest. He knows what to expect, but Woohyun’s hand still scrambles to find purchase on Hoya’s broad back when the tip of his nub is sucked into Hoya’s mouth, pulled taut and teased.

Hoya chuckles, mouth still against his chest, the vibrations humming through his pecs, and then he’s licking his way down. Hoya takes his time mapping every inch of Woohyun’s body, a gentle peck here, a soft slurp there, and then, suddenly, a wet, _wet_ kiss drawing skin between his teeth. Woohyun squeezes his eyes shut, a string of _hoyahoyahoya_ between his lips, and then Hoya’s hooking his hands under Woohyun’s thighs, pushing them up until Woohyun’s calves rest on his shoulders. With a wide grin flashing his canines, Hoya leans closer, and Woohyun’s legs slide up until it’s now the back of his knees against Hoya’s collarbones. He’s almost bent over in half, Hoya between his legs peeking at him under his spikey eyelashes, a sheen of sweat on both their bodies. Hoya’s heavy and dripping a little now, and Woohyun feels the weight of his own cock bob against his stomach. They have so much time between them and not enough, and Woohyun’s urging Hoya to _fuck him_ , but Hoya growls instead, voice low and rough.

“I’m going to make _love_ to you. I’m going to love you so, so slowly and so, _so_ tenderly, you’ll never want to just fuck again.”

Hoya’s gruff voice does something to his belly, and Woohyun doesn’t register all the words until he hears the pop of the lube bottle being uncapped. By that time, Hoya has already coated his fingers, rubbing them together to warm them up, and then Woohyun’s just whispering _yesyesyesyesyes_ when Hoya finally slips a finger in.

“How’s it?”

“ _More_ ,” Woohyun whines. Hoya leans forward, shoulders pushing Woohyun’s knees impossibly close to his own shoulders as their lips meet. A soft caress, then a wet smack leaving a thin trail of saliva connecting their mouths, and then Hoya’s tilting his head to capture Woohyun’s lower lip. Woohyun mumbles words that don’t sound like anything against Hoya’s upper lip the whole time while Hoya teases him with just one finger sliding in and out.

“ _More_ ,” he manages to gasp out the next time they part for air, and Hoya finally pushes in another finger, nudging Woohyun until their foreheads rest together as he works Woohyun open.

It takes impossibly long for Hoya to finally get up to three fingers, Woohyun’s protests ignored the whole time as he renders Woohyun trembling at his unhurried pace.

“I’m going to do this real slow,” Hoya grazes his lips, a _promise_. Woohyun’s not sure if he can take it anymore, but his mouth doesn’t know how to form proper words either, so he just keens. Hoya’s eyes crinkle, lip corners curling up while his brows furrow with concentration, but he keeps his promise, easing into Woohyun so slowly he wants to thrust down towards Hoya himself. Hoya keeps a grip on Woohyun’s arms, fingers digging into his biceps, and Woohyun can only squeezes his eyes shut as he whimpers.

When Hoya finally bottoms out, Woohyun lets out a soft breathy moan.

“Ho _ya –_.”

“ _Hyun,_ ” Hoya breathes into his ear, voice shaky, and Woohyun can tell how much this is affecting him too. He can’t find words to answer, so Woohyun just nuzzles his cheek against Hoya’s mouth by his ear, until Hoya shudders.

“ _Hyun. Hyun, I love you. I l-love…you…so much_.”

And then there’s no words exchanged, because Hoya’s slowly sliding out, the friction torturously, deliciously slow, and Woohyun’s so used to the pace he doesn’t expect it when Hoya suddenly snaps his hips forward, one quick thrust, and he gasps.

Hoya looks surprised himself because he digs his nails harder into Woohyun’s flesh as he struggles to resume the long-drawn rhythm earlier. He manages to do this a few times, Woohyun’s body slowly rocking, gently folded into half, feet hanging over Hoya’s shoulders as he moves, but then Hoya’s face suddenly tense, and he’s exhaling what sounds like a curse before he’s picking up pace. By then, Woohyun’s lost to just _feeling_ , his thighs pushed high up towards his chest, feet dangling in the air as Hoya shifts his grip onto his calves. The steady rhythm only picks up speed, making his cock bob against his belly, the head leaking, trails dripping down his sides. He’s so lost to feeling, _drowning_ in sensations and _being_ , and Woohyun’s not sure where he ends and where Hoya begins.

Then, Hoya’s face scrunches up, a shuddery breath hissed.

Woohyun’s release follows soon after, the satisfaction spreading through his body until he’s putty in Hoya’s hands, moving along with Hoya’s last few messy thrusts because he doesn’t have the energy to control his own body anymore. When Hoya finally sags into him, Woohyun’s legs clumsily slip down Hoya’s arms, shifting to fit Hoya sliding up to rest his head on his chest. Hoya tilts his head back to gaze at Woohyun, eyes half-lidded in exhaustion and satisfaction but his face is open with all his emotions laid bare. Woohyun lazily wraps an arm around his shoulder, cradling Hoya loosely, and he thinks, for two seconds before his eyelids close, that he has never felt more cherished and more loved than in this moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soft emotional wooya should be protected... Anyway, I think this is the first time in the story you see how Hoya's actually affected by all the events thrown their way, because he always appears to have his shit together, or at least more together than Woohyun. Oh wait, no, I forgot he cried in an earlier chapter. Never mind, they're all soft pretending to be strong ok.
> 
> Anyway, after I wrote this, I happened to reread my older fics and wow, everything seems so PG in comparison. Haha. Also, as cute as soft Wooya is, we're heading towards constipated Wooya with Sunggyu from the next chapter on since they're moving to the house so...


	10. New world order

X.

◂◂◂

_“Woohyun, I’ll go this way and you can search from the other side.”_

_“Sure. Tell me if you find her or her stalker.”_

_“He’s not technically proven to be a stalker yet.”_

_“Semantics, Kibum. We’re not lawyers.”_

_“Right, just the police. Such a wonderful job.”_

_“…shut up and let’s just go.”_

▸▸▸

 

 

Sunggyu’s in the living room when Woohyun opens the door. There’s a laptop open on the coffee table, Sunggyu hunched over it, but he turns to take in Woohyun and Hoya standing at the entrance. His nose twitches, then crinkles a little. It’s the only acknowledgment of their arrival, because Sunggyu’s already turning back to his laptop without a word. Woohyun changes to indoor slippers. Hoya is already done, picking up both their overnight bags.

“I’m going to bring this upstairs,” Hoya says, heading for the stairs. Woohyun takes it to mean he’s supposed to talk to Sunggyu. They can’t keep avoiding each other anyway, not if they’re staying together.

“What are you doing?” Woohyun settles on asking. Sunggyu’s laptop screen has multiple tabs open on his browser, maps, news sites, and he’s scanning through twitter and what looks like the page for missing persons in Seoul as well.

“Looking for any potential victims L might have drunk from,” Sunggyu answers without any inflection in tone, not looking up. Woohyun doesn’t comment on it, but it’s almost as if Sunggyu can guess what he’s thinking of, because he’s adding, “L and many other old vampires only drink fresh blood. There’s no guarantee that he’ll stick to that habit, but I figured it’s at least a start to finding him.”

Woohyun nods, digesting the information, until he remembers –

“Have you tried finding his animal-to-call?” Hoya asks as he pads down the steps, snatching Woohyun’s question out of his mouth. He gives Hoya a quirked brow. Hoya throws him a lopsided grin in return.

“I was thinking it’ll be easier for you to work on that angle,” Sunggyu replies, glancing at Hoya.

“What kind of were is he?” Hoya asks.

“Leopard.”

 

 

◂◂◂

_“Anything?”_

_“No. Stop using the walkie-talkie. It’s making me stand out.”_

_“…”_

_“Wait, Kibum, I see something in the alley. I’m going to go in to check.”_

_“Alley? …Okay, do that, but be careful.”_

_“I will.”_

▸▸▸

 

 

Woohyun watches Hoya pick up his phone, walking to the kitchen to rattle off instructions to someone in his pack – probably Kwangsuk – to dig things up. In the living room still, Sunggyu’s reading article after article, opening as many tabs as he closes. Woohyun feels useless just standing there.

“Anything I can do to help?”

Sunggyu looks up for a second. Scrunches his forehead. “Is Kibum still in the force? If you can get him to keep feelers out, nothing illegal, nothing big, just –"

Woohyun blinks rapidly. Then, in a tired voice, he mumbles, “He retired.”

Sunggyu stops in his rambling. “Oh.” Sheepishly, he turns back to his screen. “I forgot it has been a while.”

 _I forgot humans grow old_ , is what he might as well have been saying. Vampires don’t age. Neither do bonded human servants or animals-to-call. Humans though, humans do. It has been thirty odd years since he was partners with Kibum – the last thirteen of which Sunggyu had disappeared from – and many things have changed since. He’s not sure why it matters, but Woohyun feels like he needs to point it out.

“Kibum retired at fifty-five. That was four years ago. He has also been dead for the last two years.”

Woohyun doesn’t wait for Sunggyu’s reaction, just drags a hand through his hair and heads upstairs. Seeing how he isn’t going to be of much help, he might as well get started on the unpacking.

 

 

◂◂◂

_“Hey, what’s going on here?”_

_A pair of narrow eyes glowers. Then, “What’s a police officer doing in the alley?”_

_“…I’m on patrol, and I heard noises, so I came to check.”_

_“Nothing to see here.”_

_“That’s for me to –" a flash of teeth, too fast, too white – “t-to find out.”_

_A larger grin, this time. Fangs._ Fangs _, not just teeth. “Unless you are offering to take his place and offer me blood, there’s nothing for you to find out.”_

_A drop of sweat slides down his brow. A swallow, too loud to his own ears. “Vampires might be legal citizens now, but you can’t just take blood from unwilling humans.”_

_A chuckle, no real humour in them. “He’s not unwilling.”_

_“How would I know? Vampires can use mind tricks on humans.”_

_A pause. “How interesting.”_

_“…what?”_

_“You’re just a human. You know I can easily influence you. And yet you stand here, attempting to negotiate with me for a stranger’s blood.”_

_“…”_

_“How about this. A deal. Tell me your name, and I promise I won’t drink a drop from this little human.”_

_“…”_

_“It’s an easy deal, isn’t it?”_

_“…You’ll really keep that promise?”_

_“Perhaps vampires aren’t the most scrupulous of creatures in your eyes, but one thing we do have is honor. I’ll never lie to you.”_

_“…Woohyun… N-nam Woohyun. Now will you let the man go?”_

_“Yes.” A step, closer to him. “Woohyun-ssi, I hope to see you again. You’re an interesting one.”_

_“…c-can’t really say the same for you…”_

_“Sunggyu. My name’s Sunggyu. Remember it.”_

▸▸▸

 

 

Hoya finds him later. Pulls him to the living room, saying they need to discuss some arrangements for tomorrow onwards. Sunggyu looks up when Woohyun sits across the table from him.

“I’m sorry,” he starts, but maybe Woohyun’s making a harder face than he thinks, because Sunggyu abruptly stops. Hoya shoots them both a look.

Woohyun sighs. He doesn’t want to deal with this, but it’s not like he can just keep avoiding Sunggyu either. He had given that option up by choosing to stay here instead of in the penthouse. Making this difficult for everyone involved is the last thing he wants to do, especially when Hoya seems to have taken it upon himself to be the mediator. So although he’s still pissed at Sunggyu for a lot of things, Woohyun decides to concede a little.

“Apology accepted. You didn’t know about Kibum passing away. It’s fine. I know you wouldn’t have brought it up if you did.”

Sunggyu nods, a little surprised but grateful, and Woohyun quickly glances away. While technically it’s not Sunggyu’s fault for not knowing about Kibum’s passing, it had been Sunggyu’s choice to run away and remain gone for thirteen years, so the two are not entirely unrelated. Unfortunately, that train of thought is a slippery slope – one Woohyun has no desire to go down – so he nudges Hoya, hoping they can discuss other things instead. Hoya starts by taking a seat, one on a stool instead of joining either Woohyun or Sunggyu on one of their sofas, and Woohyun is pretty sure he did it on purpose to show he’s not choosing favourites.

“I think,” Hoya begins, looking like he had already thought through this, “We shouldn’t go anywhere alone from now onwards. We are not a hundred percent sure who L’s target is, even if Sunggyu thinks it’s mostly likely Woohyun, so we should be careful on all fronts. My suggestion is for Sungjong to accompany Woohyun since he’s already working at the club on most nights anyway, and Sunggyu can come with me to the were headquarters. We can’t just abandon our duties to the vamps and weres just because of L, so I thought this would work out the best, since Sunggyu can still track L from the HQ. And I’ll be working with my pack anyway, so we can easily exchange information if needed.”

Woohyun doesn’t protest to the arrangement. He’s glad that he will still be working – it keeps his mind off things like how he’s not able to help track L – and Sungjong isn’t a chore to have around. It’s a pretty reasonable and feasible arrangement to have, all around. Hoya’s good at taking charge – always was, although he definitely got even better over the years – and Woohyun’s glad he’s making decisions. Sunggyu agrees to the arrangement as well, which Woohyun thinks marks the end of their discussion, but then Hoya clears his throat.

“Okay, now that that’s settled, there’s something else I need to bring up.”

Hoya sounds more hesitant than earlier, and Woohyun waits, hoping it’s nothing bad.

“Sunggyu needs to get his strength back, and the fastest way would probably be for him to feed every day.”

Woohyun’s brows scrunch together. There’s no need for vampires to feed daily, unless they’re very newly turned, which Sunggyu is obviously not. But maybe the extreme remedy is needed for this situation, Woohyun considers, with how weak Sunggyu has gotten. That thought is confirmed when Sunggyu dips his head – an acknowledgement – as Hoya continues.

“Right. So… fresh blood would be the best, but it won’t be easy to find that many willing donors. And even though my pack is amendable to providing blood occasionally, like during the council meeting, I can’t abuse my power to ask them to donate the amount we need for Sunggyu, so…”

Hoya trails off, and Woohyun knows now, why Hoya was hesitant.

“If you’re trying to be tactful about suggesting the two of us provide blood, you know you don’t need to do that,” Woohyun comments, raising an eyebrow. “I have no problems with that.”

Hoya looks half-guilty and half-grateful – Woohyun would kiss the hesitation off his face if he was alone with him – but he quickly accepts the statement, and continues, “Yeah, okay, so, since there’re two of us, we can alternate who Sunggyu drinks from every day. That way, we won’t drain ourselves. It’ll probably still be a good idea to eat more than we usually do to keep up our own strength up though…”

This time when the sentence trails off, no one says anything. The silence is decidedly awkward.

After a long while, Sunggyu mutters, “I can also find donors, you know, if you let me hunt for a while –"

“No.”

Hoya’s answer is to be expected. What Woohyun hadn’t predicted though, is that _he_ would exclaim the same thing so reflexively.

“It’s not safe to do that,” Hoya says by way of explanation. It makes sense since hunting for donors is usually best done alone, and they’ve already established that they’re not going to go anywhere alone with L around, so that’s out. Woohyun hadn’t thought so far when he protested, so when the two of them turn to him awaiting an explanation, he rattles off the first excuse that comes to mind:

“What do you think people will think if they see their Master of the City preying on humans on the streets?”

The instance the question leaves his lips, Woohyun hears how faulty his logic is. Because Sunggyu _had_ occasionally hunted as a Master of the City before (before he left). Woohyun is two moments too slow in realising that he could have just agreed with Hoya’s reasoning, except that _that_ wasn’t what he had been thinking of at all.

( _“Your blood is the sweetest, Hyun.”_ )

He’s not sure why the first thought to leap to his mind the moment he heard Sunggyu’s question is how Sunggyu had drunk almost exclusively from him before he left, but Woohyun’s not going to admit it. If the same thought passes through Sunggyu’s head, he doesn’t voice it either, because all he says is, “Okay, okay. No hunting.”

 

 

A week passes with no leads on L or his animal-to-call. They try expanding their search from just Seoul to the areas around. Woohyun wants to help; reminds Hoya and Sunggyu that he used to track people for a job but they tell him they already have feelers out in both vamp and were circles, and there’s little more Woohyun can do.

“I’m not undermining you,” Hoya explains with a kiss to his temple when they’re getting ready to sleep. “It’s just, as important as it is to find L, we also need to keep up our appearances and make sure the vampires and wereanimals don’t find out that something’s wrong. Managing the club and dispelling any rumors before they arise is the best way to do that, and you know you do that the best out of the three of us.”

Woohyun doesn’t point out that a large part of it is Sungjong’s credit. He knows Hoya only means well. Instead, he takes to finding Sungyeol during lulls at work, because Sungyeol got the job of bartender at the club. He doesn’t have much he can say to the guy – just mundane complains like how traffic was terrible – because Sungyeol’s not close to him, but it’s one of the places where Woohyun isn’t stuck with Sungjong behind him like a second shadow. Every night, Sungjong has to move around the club, eavesdropping for any potential rumors that might cause them trouble, and nip the problem in the bud (read: manipulate memories) before gossip can spread. It’s a job easier done alone, so Woohyun stays at the bar while Sungjong walks the floor. For safety’s sake (and also because Hoya will hurt Sungjong if he doesn’t comply), Woohyun and Sungjong always make sure they’re within sight of each other.

It’s during one of Sungjong’s daily walk in the club when Woohyun’s at the bar again, telling Sungyeol something about the inconveniences of being short. Sungyeol laughs at him. He probably doesn’t understand – never had to bear with the pain of insoles – and Woohyun sighs exaggeratedly. He’s not really offended though. Quite the opposite, in fact, because everyone around him is tense – Hoya and Sunggyu trying to find L and his animal-to-call as quickly as they can, Sungjong mindful of keeping Woohyun safe – so Sungyeol’s careless attitude is a nice breath of fresh air. He doesn’t feel trapped when he’s talking to Sungyeol, and Woohyun would be lying if he said he doesn’t come to look forward to this time of the night. In fact, if he’s being honest, the only time Woohyun enjoys more than talking inane nonsense with Sungyeol is the time he has with Hoya alone, just before they fall asleep.

Unfortunately, that’s rather rare these days. Hoya’s exhausted from his double workload of running wereanimal affairs and tracking L’s animal-to-call, falling asleep as soon as his head hits the bed. Woohyun can only press a light kiss to Hoya’s back as he hugs him in the wee hours of the morning, careful not to jostle him awake. That’s how, in a bid to ease Hoya’s burden, Woohyun turns to finding the comfort he needs in the daily ten minute idle chatter he has with Sungyeol.

They’re talking about something else now – something stupid probably – when Sungyeol suddenly changes topic.

“Do you like, ever wear anything other than turtlenecks?”

Woohyun looks down at his black turtleneck, itchy around his jawline. It’s identical to the one he wore yesterday. And the day before. And all the other ones he wore the past week. In fact, now that he’s thinking about it, he had also been wearing a turtleneck that first night he met Sungyeol. Woohyun’s not sure how much Sungyeol remembers of the night he offered blood to Sunggyu, but it’s not like it helps his case to bring that up even if he could, so Woohyun just retorts, “Yah, what’s wrong? Can’t I just really like turtlenecks?”

Sungyeol gives him a skeptical look, but he backs off, hands raised in defense. “I didn’t say anything. It was just a question.”

 

 

The thing is, Woohyun has no love lost for turtlenecks. He only wears them to hide the bite marks on his neck.

Woohyun is in the living room two nights after, waiting for Sunggyu to wake up so he can offer him blood before he leaves for work. Another identical turtleneck is lying on the sofa, waiting to be worn. Since Sunggyu hasn’t gotten up yet, Woohyun takes the time to examine the half-healing bite mark on his wrist - the place Sunggyu first drank from – before he gingerly touches the ones on his neck. He had only fed Sunggyu four times since they moved to the house, but there’re already five marks on his body: four on his neck, one on his wrist (or two, if he counts the almost completely healed one from the night Sunggyu got stabbed).

(Hoya doesn’t have any, because he heals each bite within an hour – the duration of his drive to the were headquarters.)

The thing is, Woohyun wouldn’t have bite marks on his neck if not for the fact that it’s much easier to drink from the neck than the wrist. The artery is bigger on the neck after all.

The first night he was supposed to feed Sunggyu, Woohyun had offered his wrist. He was not entirely comfortable with letting Sunggyu drink from his neck, not with the tension still between them. Sunggyu hadn’t complained, just accepted his arm silently. When Sunggyu was done, however, his complexion was only marginally healthier than before he started.

“He probably needs more blood,” Hoya had said. It was the same conclusion Woohyun had come to. He could have remedied that by letting Sunggyu suck on his wrist longer, but Woohyun was getting late for work, so he ended up offering his neck, knowing that go faster. That first feeding was awkward, tension thick in the air, and Woohyun had silently went back up to change his dress shirt to a turtleneck to hide the mark. Sunggyu hadn’t commented. Yet, somehow, on subsequent feedings, they automatically assumed a position where Sunggyu can drink from Woohyun’s neck – Woohyun tilting his head automatically to bare the length of it to Sunggyu; Sunggyu’s hand resting on his shoulder for support before his tongue draws a wet stripe on Woohyun’s skin, fangs sinking into flesh. It’s not like the tension disappeared – if anything, it _grows,_ grows into something _else_ – but they start to tiptoe around it.

When Sunggyu finally walks into the living room, ten minutes past sunset, Woohyun doesn’t look at him. He doesn’t need to, really, because he can hear Sunggyu’s footsteps as he nears the sofa, can feel the presence of a body settling beside him. Turning to face Sunggyu, Woohyun keeps his eyes down but still he registers narrow eyes focused on him, hints of bloodlust clouding the gaze. The skin on the back of his neck prickles. He takes a breath, then tilts his head, stretching the skin on his neck smooth, taut. Sunggyu’s hands come up to rest on his body, one on his shoulder, another on his waist. There’s no real pressure, just fingers lightly placed. Woohyun exhales.

He’s offering the left side of his neck to Sunggyu today. Even though it’s already covered with sets of twin punctures from the previous feedings, the bites there are more healed than the ones on the right, so Woohyun figures it’s a better choice. Sunggyu doesn’t say a word, only noses at the loose neckline of Woohyun’s wifebeater, breath moist on his collarbone. Woohyun remembers the skin there being unmarked, which is good because fangs re-piercing a healing bite hurts. The problem is, it also really hurts to be bitten on such a bony area. He’s about to protest on Sunggyu’s choice, but then Sunggyu’s already pressing a soft kiss to the skin there, lips parting. Woohyun forgets what he wanted to say when a wet tongue darts out, and then he’s hissing at the pain that follows.

(Hoya doesn’t hiss when Sunggyu drinks from him. It’s partly because he has a higher pain tolerance, but it’s mostly because Sunggyu only ever drinks from the fleshy part of Hoya’s neck where the artery runs through instead of the bony collarbone where the blood flow is only about as fast as the wrist.)

The thing is, Woohyun doesn’t have to let Sunggyu drink from his neck if he doesn’t want to, especially not when it defeats the purpose of letting him drink from the neck instead of the wrist to begin with. It takes ages before Sunggyu’s skin turns from clammy to warm, even as he’s constantly sucking on Woohyun’s collarbone. The whole time Sunggyu’s mouth is latched on Woohyun’s skin, cheeks hollowed as he draws the blood into his throat, sucking _hard_ –much harder than usual, and harder even than when he feeds from Woohyun’s wrist – Woohyun clenches his fists, pressing his nails into his palm so he won’t make a sound after the initial hiss. He can ask him to stop anytime, ask Sunggyu to change to a different spot where blood flows more readily, but Woohyun doesn’t. Instead, he lets Sunggyu drink, drink until he has a dark purple bruise in the shape of Sunggyu’s mouth on his neck, and if it looks terrible, well, Woohyun figures he’s already wearing the scratchy turtlenecks, so it’s not like there’s a lot of difference.

(Except, of course, there is.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did say they would be constipated, right? Cos they are. (Probably would be for a while more...) Ah, lots of things happened and revealed in this chapter, though maybe things are still not very clear, but we're heading towards something, for sure. :)
> 
> Anyway, I'll love to know what you think~
> 
> P.S.: Why I'm trying to post this while trying to watch KBS Gayo and Infinite's Vapp is beyond me. I can't multitask.
> 
> [edit:]  
> I drew woogyu from a scene in this chapter ^^ ([CLICK](http://stillcian1675.tumblr.com/post/155971643705/fiftyseven-woogyu-in-chapter-10-of-three-read)). (Warning for blood-sucking (?) though it's not very graphic)


	11. Out like a light

XI.

There are many differences between living in the penthouse with just Hoya, and living in the house with Hoya and Sunggyu. There’s the part where Hoya stops sending Woohyun to work with an “I love you” because Sunggyu’s in the living room when Woohyun leaves with Sungjong. There’s the part where Sunggyu is always somewhere in Woohyun’s peripheral vision even if they do their best to avoid each other unless they have things to discuss (with Hoya as a buffer) or when Woohyun’s offering blood. Then, there’s the part where Woohyun looks for Hoya only to find him with Sunggyu, the two of them focused on something related to finding L. Woohyun doesn’t track the differences consciously, but they creep up on him all the same. 

It’s inevitable, after all, the way things have to change because Sunggyu’s suddenly here (suddenly back), but even amidst the changes (amidst the tension thick between him and Sunggyu), Woohyun finds some things still remain the same when he’s alone with Hoya. Before they leave their bed to get ready for work in the evenings, Hoya still pulls him in for a hug, even if he’s sleepier than usual because of his new workload. Hoya still says “I love you”, although it’s now mostly whispered in the confines of their bedroom after Sunggyu’s asleep. Before they go to sleep, Hoya still paws at his chest playfully, eyes twinkling even though he usually falls asleep before he does anything else nowadays. Woohyun doesn’t mind. The similarities are what anchors him, and he tricks himself into thinking that he’s getting used to this new routine – getting used to Sunggyu in the house – when really, what he’s doing is using Hoya’s presence and familiarity as a safety blanket against the changes Sunggyu’s reappearance brings.

(Against the things he doesn’t want to confront with Sunggyu.)

It’s not that he completely ignores Sunggyu. No, Woohyun talks to him about things – things like _How’s your progress with tracking L?_ , _Can you separate your white clothes from the coloured ones when you shower?_ , and _Will you clean up your papers all over the living room before someone trips?_ – but Woohyun doesn’t actually _talk_ to him about the things that really matter.

(Things like, _When will you tell us why you left us without a word_? _,_ _Are you going to leave again when this L threat is settled?_ , and _Are we ever going to discuss what to do about this? About us?_ )

Woohyun doesn’t ask the questions that really matter, because he’s been holding them too close to his heart for too many years now, and he’s not sure if the aftermath of talking to Sunggyu will leave things worse than they are at the moment. At least now the air between them is just tense; they can still behave cordially enough to focus on the threat of L. If Woohyun lets his mouth loose, he’s not sure if they’ll still be able to be clear-headed enough to work together. So Woohyun turns to residing in his role as Woohyun, manager of the vamp club, one third of their power triumvirate, and keeps Woohyun, just Woohyun, the man without any  other duties and responsibilities to the supernatural population of Seoul, buried deep in his heart. Woohyun suspects Hoya has noticed what he’s doing, but he’s too busy to do anything about it, and Sunggyu…well, Woohyun figures he’s probably doing the same. Keeping the mask of Master of the City on at all times instead of just being himself.

Except of course, masks crack, and this one is no different.

 

 

Woohyun’s back in the house after work, just bringing their laundry basket to the washing machine, when he spots Sunggyu in the living room.

 _They’re back_ , he thinks. Which means Hoya is in the house, even if he’s not in sight at the moment. It’s earlier today, an hour before dawn instead of just minutes before. Hoya’s presence is confirmed when the shower upstairs sounds. Adjusting the heavy basket in his arms, Woohyun reminds himself to get Hoya’s clothes before he starts the load. He’s setting the basket on the floor by the washing machine, about to head upstairs when Sunggyu mutters, tone low but loud enough to be heard easily –

“Do you know you _smell_ like Hoya?”

Woohyun pauses mid-step. Turns to look at Sunggyu, an eyebrow cocked, but otherwise trying not to let his emotions show through.

“…So what if I smell like him? Are you trying to imply something?”

Sunggyu’s gaze is unblinking, and Woohyun has to resist the urge to cross his arms over his chest. He would not be intimidated by something like this, damn it.

After what feels like a long time, Sunggyu finally says, “No, of course I know you guys have sex without me.”

His tone is back to bland this time, but Woohyun senses the terseness in Sunggyu’s words. He narrows his eyes at him. He’s not sure why Sunggyu’s telling him this – why he decides to tell Woohyun he smells like Hoya today when he hasn’t had sex with Hoya for the past week, instead of doing it on the first day they moved to the house when even Woohyun could smell the remnants of their slow lovemaking on his skin – but he settles for deadpanning, “Oh wow, yes. You probably would have already thought of that before you left, right?”

It’s a low blow – he shouldn’t have mentioned it; had previously told himself to be cordial – but Woohyun had kept his mask on for long enough, and he’s finding it harder to pretend. Maybe Sunggyu is too, because he squeezes his eyes shut, like he’s in pain.

“Don’t act like you know _why_ I left.”

Okay, no, Woohyun takes it back. He’s not going to be cordial if Sunggyu isn’t going to be. The slow simmer of angry always under his skin since Sunggyu’s unexpected return starts to bubble, and Woohyun finds himself snapping, between gritted teeth, “ _Of course_ I don’t. I hadn’t even expected it back then.”

Sunggyu’s eyes are still closed, but his eyebrows knit together. He looks like he’s about to retort, but then presses his lips into a thin line. “You don’t understand,” he eventually says, voice tight.

Woohyun blinks. The swipe of eyelids over his vision suddenly blurs it, and it takes a moment for him to register that it’s tears. His jaw is clenched too tight. Woohyun forces himself to take a deep breath and exhale before he speaks so the wetness in his eyes won’t roll down his face.

 “…the _fuck_? Of course I don’t understand. How would I know if you don’t tell me, tell _us_ , anything?” Woohyun has to breathe again, a long deep inhale, before he manages to say the next words, “You just… you always bear all the burden by yourself without saying a word, and you think we should be grateful for that? Look at you, doing the same thing now, with tracking L. Sure, you tell Hoya he can track L’s animal-to-call, but you don’t let him help you hunt down L. And you don’t ask me for help either. Hell, you don’t even _tell_ me anything."

Sunggyu’s eyes open, just a crack, and Woohyun turns away, swipes at the tears spilling. He only turns back when his face is dry. Sunggyu looks at him without a word for a long time, like he has something he doesn’t understand and Woohyun gets hopeful, but eventually he only says, “I don’t get why that’s a problem.”

The breath he has been holding deflates. Woohyun sniffs, trying to clear his nose and throat, but his voice is still smaller than he’d like when he finds the words he has wanted to say for a long time –

“It’s a _problem_ because we’re _here._ We’re here for _you_ , but you don’t want to tell us anything. We want to help you so you don’t have to bear everything alone, but we can’t do that if you don’t want our help.”

He’s not sure what he’s expecting when he finally gets that off his chest, but Sunggyu’s lack of response is not it, even if Woohyun can’t find it in himself to be surprised.

“See. You’re doing it again.”

When he turns his back on Sunggyu to trudge up the stairs, Woohyun has to fight to keep himself quiet, even as his eyes sting and his breath hitches with the sobs that threaten to spill. He’s all the way up to the second floor, ears perked, still (stupidly) hoping for some response, but even though he waits – waits until he can no longer stop the tears that he’s been holding back – Sunggyu still doesn’t say anything.

 

 

He’s in the club the next night, sitting at the bar while Sungjong does his usual routine walk. Woohyun’s head feels cottony; he didn’t sleep very well. Sungyeol’s drying glasses, rambling about something Woohyun’s not fully paying attention to, when he suddenly stops.

“Wow, you’re really tired, aren’t you?”

Woohyun raises his head to look at Sungyeol, “What?”

“Nothing, just. You already look like shit, but I said the same story three times and you didn’t even react, so it must be worse than you look.”

Woohyun rolls his eyes – regretting it a little because his head doesn’t need more help getting disoriented – but he manages to get out, “Well, _thanks_ so much for the compliment.”

He expects Sungyeol to retort a dry “ _you’re welcome_ ” or continue talking, but instead he turns around. When he’s facing Woohyun again, he sets a shot glass in front of him.

“Here, you look like you need one.”

Woohyun eyes the glass. He’s not sure how alcohol would help his sleepy state. Maybe Sungyeol thinks he’s down and that’s why he couldn’t sleep – which wouldn’t be far from the truth – and he thinks alcohol would help with that. Woohyun toys with the idea of downing just one shot during work – it’s kind of tempting now that it’s in front of him – but then he remembers Hoya saying they shouldn’t drink because they need to keep their blood clean for Sunggyu.

(For _Sunggyu_. As if everything in his life isn’t already tied to him in some way, his job, his emotions…)

Woohyun sighs, pushing the glass back towards Sungyeol. He’s not really in the mood anyway.

Sungyeol takes the glass back with a shrug, moving it to his prep counter. “Not a problem alcohol can solve then?”

Woohyun pinches his nose bridge. Instead of answering the question, he banters, “Why are you talking like a bartender now?”

“Because I am one?” Sungyeol’s tone is amused.

Woohyun rolls his eyes again. “No I mean, a stereotypical bartender who listens to your woes and all.” He waves his hand to mean something like Sungyeol is usually a little less good at listening and more adept at talking nonsense, but he can’t be bothered to add that, so he doesn’t. Anyway, Sungjong looks like he’s done with his rounds and is walking back so it means his conversation with Sungyeol is ending soon. “I got to go back to work.”

Sungyeol follows Woohyun’s gaze to Sungjong coming to the bar, and nods. Woohyun’s standing up, dusting off his pants, when Sungyeol quietly adds, “And just so you know, I do listen.”

Sungjong’s already beside him, but Woohyun lets himself stay a second longer so he can reply.

“Yeah, I know.” Then, as an afterthought, he adds, “Thank you.” Even though he can’t tell Sungyeol what’s on his mind, Woohyun still feels better now than before he sat down at the bar, so he figures it counts for something. He doesn’t expect the thanks to surprise Sungyeol, but it does, because the guy freezes for a moment, before he quickly turns away.

Woohyun chuckles a little, but otherwise leaves Sungyeol (and what is probably his embarrassment) be, following Sungjong back to the office.

 

 

Back in the office, Woohyun’s sorting through the work he has, when Sungjong gets a call. He thinks nothing of it, until Sungjong gets up hastily.

“I need to go. They found some victims in Ansan.”

“Who,” Woohyun starts to ask, but then _figures_. “They finally found L’s tracks?” He shouldn’t sound so happy about it – because victims probably mean dead bodies if it took Sunggyu and Hoya so long to find them with all the feelers they have out – but Woohyun can’t help but feel like they’re finally heading somewhere. “Where in Ansan?” he asks as he sets down his work, ready to follow Sungjong, but the vampire only eyes him cautiously.

“Sunggyu told me to go check, and me alone. In fact, he specifically mentioned you shouldn’t go.”

“What,” Woohyun begins, but Sungjong’s hurriedly cutting him off.

“I know, I don’t want to do this either, but I really need to go now, or I won’t make it there before dawn. You can argue with Sunggyu about this.”

Sungjong’s gone before Woohyun can say anything, and he’s left alone for the first time in a while. Woohyun’s wondering if he should disregard Sunggyu’s words (his _order_ , really), but then his phone rings.

“Hey.”

It’s Hoya. Woohyun sighs, because he has a feeling he knows what this is going to be about. “Yeah?”

“Sungjong just left right?”

“Yeah.” Woohyun mumbles. He should probably add something more to soften his one-word answers, but he doesn’t really have anything else to say (anything that isn’t a terrible idea that is).

“Okay. Do you want me to come over to get you?” Hoya asks, voice a little too _casual_ , which means he had probably guessed how Woohyun is taking this.

(Not well at all.)

Still, he’s at least giving Woohyun a choice, unlike Sunggyu earlier, so Woohyun tries to sound a little less annoyed. “No, it’s fine. I can get home alone.”

“Wouldn’t Sungjong have taken your car?”

Woohyun looks down, sees his car keys still on his desk. “No, he didn’t ask for my keys. He’s probably taking one of the ones we use for goods. What did you find?”

“…it’s not safe to say this over the phone,” Hoya says, and Woohyun remembers how they just fixed a phone bugging issue last year, so he lets that go.

“Okay, tell me when I get home later then. I’ll just finish up what I was doing and I’ll be going back. It wouldn’t be long.”

Hoya’s silent on the other side for a long moment. Then, he says, too _slowly_ , “You know. If I come over to get you, I can fill you in on the way back.”

It’s clear what he’s trying to do – get Woohyun to agree to let him fetch him home – but Woohyun doesn’t need to be babied. First Sunggyu, now Hoya. Granted, Hoya’s not forcing him to follow his wishes, but Woohyun’s tired of always being the weaker one in their eyes. “No, it’s really fine. I’ll get home on my own safely. You just wait for me at home. I want to know what you guys found out once I’m back. Okay?”

He’s glad his voice comes out pleasant, because even though he’s getting annoyed, Woohyun knows Hoya’s just really worried about him (really afraid of losing him). There’s a short sigh on the other side of the line, but eventually Hoya concedes.

“Alright, I’ll see you in the house later, yeah?”

Woohyun mumbles a yeah that manages to be almost cheery, but he’s already heading out of his office.

 

 

Sungyeol’s surprised when Woohyun is back at the bar.

“Why…?”

Woohyun ignores his question, just says, “Give me whatever you were offering just now.”

Sungyeol blinks, looking vaguely like an owl with how wide his eyes are. “…the drink?”

“Yeah.”

When Sungyeol puts the shot glass on the table, Woohyun grabs it, downs it without warning. It burns his throat, and he’s slamming it back on the table, ready to ask for another, but then his head suddenly spins.

_What?_

He wants to ask what’s in the shot Sungyeol gave him, but then his vision gets spotty. He can’t get a grip on the counter table, and Woohyun’s very suddenly aware that this isn’t just a stronger spirit taking him by surprise.

_Something’s wrong._

Woohyun has the vague realization that he’s falling, and the last thing he remembers is trying to push that panicked last thought through the psychic link before he’s out like a light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun dun~
> 
>  
> 
> In other news, I was debating whether I should upload this chapter. I've actually been writing two chapters in advance for most of this fic so far but then I didn't have the writing motivation after ch9 so this chapter is the last thing I have for Three at the moment. Which means the next chapter will probably take a while. Add the fact that I have other ongoing fics which I've been neglecting to write this, and I'm not sure when the next update will be. I wasn't sure if leaving this fic with such a cliffhanger ending for a longer wait between updates is the best thing to do, but I think the next chapters would be better if I take a break from this fic for a while. It's going to be something different from what the usual genre I write and I think I need some time to do that haha. So yeah, even though this fic has been updating quite frequently, the next update would take longer. I hope the cliffhanger keeps you interested till then, lol.
> 
> Also, I wrote a [woogyu pretentious artist AU oneshot](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9143146) recently to try a different writing format. Check it out if you're interested :)
> 
> And I'm on [tumblr](http://stillcian1675.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/cian1675) as well if anyone wants to find me there. I don't do much on twitter but I follow people, I post more stuff on tumblr ehh.


	12. Woke

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for violence, death and mentions of blood.

XII.

The first thing he notices is the dull throbbing of his head.

Woohyun almost winces, but he remembers to keep himself still in time. _The drink. Blacking out. Sungyeol…_

His heart speeds up at the memory, the feeling of panic clenching his chest. Fuck. He doesn’t really know what’s going on, but Woohyun has a sinking feeling it isn’t anything good. Unfortunately, panic isn’t a good response – even if it’s one he really wants to succumb to – so Woohyun tries to keep his breathing slow and shallow the way he was taught years ago as a rookie officer. Hopefully whoever is responsible for this (Sungyeol?) wouldn’t realise that he has come to. When his heart rate finally slows down to a more normal pace, Woohyun tries to take stock of his body and where he is with his eyes still closed.

He waits, listening for movement, but there doesn’t seem to be any sound. Woohyun slowly test each part of his body, moving just slightly, in case he’s wrong about being alone wherever he is. He’s not very surprised to realise that his wrists are bounded together, or that his ankles are fastened to what is probably a chair. He’s about to open his eyes to check, but then there is a small shuffle, and Woohyun quickly relaxes his body, pretends to still be out.

“…okay, so …yeah, okay …I shouldn’t kill him yet, right?”

The voice is too hushed for Woohyun to catch everything but it sounds like it could be Sungyeol’s – it’s only a guess; Woohyun’s pretty sure he had never heard Sungyeol speak in a whisper before. Still, whoever it is, they sounds like they’re somewhere near him, though maybe not that close. A room away or behind a door perhaps. Regardless, Woohyun isn’t taking any chances so he continues to feign unconsciousness while his ears strain to pick up the rest of the conversation.

“…hurry. Yeah. Yeah. …Okay.”

A soft tap signals what Woohyun suspects is the end of a phone call, given how he had only heard one voice in the conversation. Shortly after, he hears soft padding coming towards him.

“…Woohyun?”

He catches his breath in time to exhale it slowly instead of in a rush after being startled by the voice.

 _It’s definitely Sungyeol’s_.

He’s still processing this fact against the (bigger) emerging question of _Why is Sungyeol doing this?_ when he hears Sungyeol mutter –

“Did I put too much? Or is his metabolism much slower than I expected?”

A tentative finger grazes his temple, and Woohyun nearly freezes. He doesn’t get what’s going on, particularly the part where he’s bounded and not dead – although he could be soon, if the snippets he picked up earlier is anything to go by – and he doesn’t _understand_. There’re too many thoughts rushing through his head right now. _Is this something related to L?_ _Why is Sungyeol here? And why does he sound so calm and_ –

Suddenly he feels a soft pat on the top of his head, but it’s quickly gone, almost jerkily withdrawn, which makes even less sense than the pat itself. Then again, nothing really makes sense at the moment. The next thing Woohyun knows, there’s a muffled sigh, followed by the sound of footsteps fading away.

_What the heck is going on?_

There’s no good answer to that question. The still throbbing headache he has doesn’t help, and it takes a while for Woohyun to remember he could still try to contact someone over the psychic link. The moment he remembers this, Woohyun’s reaching over that connection, and he finds Hoya almost immediately.

_Hyun! You- Where are you? Are you okay?_

He hears Hoya’s distress and Woohyun tries not to let that affect his own barely restrained panic.

_I’m okay, sort of. Alive, uninjured but bounded. I…don’t know where I am. I’m pretending to be unconscious right now._

He decides not to mention what he overheard earlier about someone – _Sungyeol and whoever he was talking with on the phone_ – intending to kill him eventually. That wouldn’t help Hoya’s state of mind at all. Despite that, there’s still a sudden flare of emotion from Hoya – anger and something else – at his reply. It’s quickly clamped down as soon as it appears, but Woohyun still senses tenseness in the thoughts Hoya sends his way:

_Shit, I shouldn’t have listened to you. Should have just driven to the club earlier. I drove there as fast as I could after I felt your panic, but then you were already gone, and by the time I got back to the were headquarters, Sunggyu wasn’t around either. What the fuck is going on?_

Woohyun’s asking the same question himself, but he knows Hoya is just as confused as he is – just as panicked as he is – so he tries to remain calm and pick out what little information he has.

_Do you remember Sungyeol? He’s with me right now. I’m pretty sure he’s the one who drugged and bounded me._

Hoya’s confused and it shows in his thoughts.

_…Sungyeol? The werewolf? Why?_

Woohyun is equally clueless. Or maybe he’s _more_ clueless, because he had been the one talking to Sungyeol the whole last week or so and he hadn’t seen this coming.

_I don’t know. Do you think it’s related to L?_

There’s a pause which sounds like it could be Hoya’s sighing in frustration even if Woohyun can’t actually hear anything over the psychic link, and then –

_Fuck. I don’t know. Do you think he’s working for L or his animal-to-call? Wait, no, ignore that question, we don’t know anything for sure, and there’s no point speculating. I need something more concrete. …How ab- Where are you? Can you try to figure that out?_

The thread of panic in Hoya’s thoughts is still there, but Woohyun can tell that he’s starting to shift to his decision-making mode. Woohyun feels himself obeying the almost-order by habit.

_Give me a while._

Woohyun listens for any movement. When he’s sufficiently certain that no one is around him, he peeks under his lashes. The first thing in sight is his thighs on a chair, ankles out of view because they’re probably bounded tightly to the chair legs, but that’s not what catches his attention. No, it’s the swirl of marble on the floor beneath the chair that has his attention –

_Hoya. I’m in the penthouse._

_The penthouse? Our penthouse?_

It makes no sense why he would be here – _here_ , familiar territory for Woohyun, not to mention _how did Sungyeol even get in, with the security guards downstairs?_ – but Woohyun’s seen that marble pattern of their bathroom too closely too many times to not recognize it. _Yeah_ , he’s thinking, and is about to tell Hoya more, but then there’s a knock in the far distance, and a familiar scent fills his nose.

_Gyu…?_

Woohyun doesn’t know how Hoya caught that when he’s pretty sure he didn’t _think_ of Sunggyu’s name, but all Woohyun gets is a rushed _I’m coming over right now_ , and then Hoya closes the psychic link.

 

 

He hears the front door open, after another couple of knocks. That means Sungyeol is probably outside, in the living room, with Sunggyu.

(If he has time, Woohyun would wonder why Sunggyu is here – how did he _know_ to come here? – but he doesn’t have time, so he pushes those thoughts away.)

Woohyun is in the bathroom – the one in his bedroom – and it’s the furthest room from their living room. Unless there’s someone else in the house besides Sungyeol, Woohyun should be relatively safe for now, especially if Sungyeol still thinks Woohyun is out cold. This would be the best time for him to figure out how to unbind himself, Woohyun thinks, because he’s almost certain Sungyeol is alone. Woohyun quickly opens his eyes, looking around. With some fiddling, he figures out that his wrists are bounded with zip tie. Lucky. Zip ties aren’t the most difficult bindings to break. He does, however, need to stand up to do that, and that might make some noise with his ankles still tied to the chair, so Woohyun halts for a moment to check for any movement nearby before he starts.

“…you?” He hears Sunggyu say, voice muffled from how far it is, but distinctive nonetheless.

“Yeah, didn’t expect it, did you? …hiding right under your nose…”

That’s Sungyeol, speaking in a much lower tone, and Woohyun can’t pick out all the words. He catches another bit of Sunggyu saying “werewolf”, and then snippets of Sungyeol’s reply –

“…you guys have shitty noses compared to weres, but I guess going to the trouble of …different werewolves to have… everyday pays off…”

“…masking your scent?” Woohyun hears Sunggyu asks, and he doesn’t need to hear the rest of it to figure out what he’s going to ask next, but Sunggyu’s question echoes through the house, louder than his previous utterances. “You’re a were _leopard_? _You_ are L’s animal-to-call?”

There’s a short bark of laughter, then: “Bingo. Took you long enough.”

Woohyun doesn’t need to hear the rest of the banter. What he needs is to get out of here fast. He quickly stands up – awkwardly because a chair is still against him – but once he finds a stable enough position, Woohyun swings his bounded wrists forward while pushing his butt and the chair back. It takes a few tries, but eventually the zip tie breaks. The skin on his wrists is red and raw from the attempts, but his hands are freed at least. Woohyun quickly reaches over for his vanity shelf. There has to be a blade of sorts somewhere, for the ties on his legs.

 

 

“Where’s Woohyun?” he hears Sunggyu ask after he managed to cut through the zip ties around his ankle with a blade from his shaver.

“…didn’t harm him…” Sungyeol’s voice filters through the walls, softer now than before.

“…show me…”

“No,” Woohyun hears Sungyeol answer, while he carefully opens his bathroom door, checking that his bedroom is empty before he enters it.

He’s not sure how good Sungyeol’s ears are – probably better than his; he’s a were after all – so Woohyun does his best to be as quiet as he can. If he can hear parts of their conversation, Sungyeol would probably be able to pick up the fact that Woohyun’s no longer unconscious if he makes too much noise. In fact, he’s surprised that Sungyeol hasn’t noticed that yet. Maybe Sungyeol is distracted by his conversation with Sunggyu, but Woohyun isn’t naïve enough to hope that that kind of luck would last. He quickly but quietly sneaks over to his bedside drawer, glad that for he’s in his bedroom, of all the places he could be kept hostage in. The gun he always keeps by his bed to ease his paranoia would finally turn out to be useful, even if it only has six silver bullets. Now all Woohyun has to do is get his gun out quietly, and hope Sungyeol doesn’t notice he’s awake.

 

 

Woohyun presses his ear to the bedroom door, the gun a comforting weight in his hand. The beginning of a half-baked plan is forming in his head, but his mind keeps reeling, trying to assemble something better. He considers reaching over the psychic link to Sunggyu or Hoya for help, but it’s too risky to startle them with the sudden connection right now, so he scraps that thought. While he’s still thinking, he catches more of Sunggyu’s conversation with Sungyeol.

“…he thinks he should die,” he hears Sungyeol say.

 _Who?_ Woohyun wants to ask, but Sungyeol’s already continuing.

“…though I think you are the one who should die instead.”

_Wait, Sungyeol thinks Sunggyu should die? Is that why –_

“Is that why you called me here? What do you want?” Even through the door, Sunggyu’s voice is loud and clear, but there’s something else behind it that Woohyun doesn’t quite catch.

“You _can’t_ give me what I want,” Sungyeol replies, tone too harsh and sharp. “I just want _Dongwoo_ back. And _Myungsoo_. But I can’t have that.”

Both Sunggyu and Sungyeol have started raising their voices at some point, and right now, Woohyun isn’t even straining his ears to hear their conversation. He’s not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing. Good because most people can’t think straight when they’re agitated, even Sungyeol, probably, which could work to Woohyun’s advantage, but bad because an agitated Sungyeol is more likely to start attacking Sunggyu _sooner_ , and Woohyun still doesn’t have a good plan. Even if he has a tiny bit of advantage should he figure out how to surprise Sungyeol, he still doesn’t have a clue how to handle the situation they’re in. Not only that, he doesn’t have the faintest idea _who_ Sungyeol is talking about or how it’s related to Sunggyu and L, but maybe that’s not the important thing right now –

“…so you want to kill me instead, because you can’t have what you want?” is what he catches of Sunggyu’s reply.

“Yeah, why not?” Sungyeol drawls, almost bored. It’s not a voice Woohyun has heard from Sungyeol in the time he knew him, too dry, too _dead_ , but maybe he doesn’t really know the guy at all, because look at where he is right now.

There’s a sigh, then, Sunggyu’s saying, “If it’s me you want… I don’t mind dying, but I can’t have them die with me…”

Woohyun falters at that, almost losing his grip on the gun. It’s not the words that surprise him. He knows Sunggyu knows how to negotiate, knows how to say things he doesn’t mean to get his opponents’ guards down, but maybe it’s because he knows – he _knows –_ that he recognises that this is different from Sunggyu just placating the other.

“Fucking noble, aren’t you?” Sungyeol laughs without any real humour. “Maybe you should have thought of that before you killed Dongwoo –"

Something suddenly clicks in place. _Dongwoo. That’s the name of their human servant. The one Sunggyu killed –_

“…Dongwoo didn’t want to live anymore. I was just helping him.” Sunggyu sounds tired now, and _that makes no sense at all_ –

“Lies!” Sungyeol snarls –

And then the rest of it is lost to the sound of scuffling, and Woohyun’s pulling the bedroom door open before he even registers that he has moved.

 

 

Woohyun isn’t a bad shooter – years of police training has made sure of that, and hours spent at the shooting range when he’s bored pretty much prevents that from being the case. But as Woohyun runs out of the bedroom towards the living room, he realises what his first mistake is. He should have aimed for the heart. Because the second he squeezes the trigger for the shot he knows will land in Sungyeol’s thigh, he sees Sungyeol’s finger jerk on the trigger of his own gun, and there’s a blossom of red spreading on Sunggyu’s chest.

“No!”

Sunggyu’s falling, but Woohyun doesn’t have time to pay attention to that. His eyes are on Sungyeol, the guy staggering a little from the wound in his leg, but who still manages to whirls around in time to aim his gun at Woohyun. Woohyun’s own hands have moved on practiced instinct, raising his gun and squeezing the trigger before his brain catches up on what he’s doing.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

The shots are still ringing in his ears and Woohyun’s aware on some level that there are no bullets left in his gun anymore, but he’s still pulling the trigger as he approaches the living room.

“Hyun, stop. He’s dead,” Sunggyu gurgles, and it’s only then that Woohyun manages to see what he has done.

Sungyeol’s gone, a crumpled heap on the floor with overlapping bullet holes on his chest that has only just started to bleed, and his eyes are glazed over. There’s a single shot on his forehead – Woohyun doesn’t remember raising his gun further to do that, but he must have – and he knows, without a doubt, that Sungyeol’s not going to be a danger any more. Even with enhanced healing abilities, weres can’t recover from silver bullets to their heads and hearts if the shots are fatal enough, and Woohyun’s reflexes have clearly made sure of that. Woohyun quickly turns to Sunggyu, pushing any thoughts of what he has done aside – the shock and regret can wait until later – because Sunggyu’s still bleeding, and he’s coughing up crimson.

“Fuck, how bad is this?” Woohyun asks, already pushing his sleeve up so he can offer Sunggyu his wrist.

“Not good,” Sunggyu says, spitting out a mouthful of blood, then adds weakly, “I think I can heal from it though, with some help.” He doesn’t say anything else, not wasting time in sinking his fangs into Woohyun’s wrist without preamble. Normally that would hurt like hell, but Woohyun’s still tense enough that he doesn’t even register the pain. Instead, he’s busy scanning the room, trying to find something else he can use as a weapon while Sunggyu’s still attached to his arm. He doesn’t know if they’re completely safe even if Sungyeol’s gone, and Woohyun’s considering that maybe throwing his gun could work as a last resort if it comes to that because he can’t find anything else useful, when suddenly he hears a click from the direction of his front door.

 _Hoya_ , he thinks – _hopes_ , really – but Woohyun can’t exactly say he’s surprised to find another face peeking through the gap of the opening door instead.

_L._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I wouldn't be updating soon, but I still somehow ended up writing this chapter =_= Anyway, I think I'm just not going to say anything next time, and updates will happen when updates happen okay? (Or if I feel like it, I'll post my progress on [twitter](https://twitter.com/cian1675).)
> 
> That aside, a lot of things happened in a short time in this chapter (guess I should tag for minor character death(s) in the overall fic now). Most of this chapter was action scenes and I had some trouble with writing so many things happening concurrently but I hope the writing turned out alright. I abused the long dash too much lol. And there's probably even more action next chapter haha so... yeah. Also, some things should be becoming a bit clearer but I'm sure there's still a lot of questions. As usual, I'll love to know what you think, and feel free to share any speculations you may have, though I won't necessarily be able to confirm or deny anything that might give spoilers ^^


	13. Too fast

XIII.

Woohyun freezes when he meets L’s eyes. They’re dark. Empty. He can’t turn away, although he knows he should. Beside him, Sunggyu’s tensed up. Woohyun thinks it might be vampire tricks drawing his gaze towards L, but he’s no longer susceptible to those, so it doesn’t make sense why he’s still looking, except –

“…Sung…yeol?”

L’s eyes drift to behind Woohyun, and he doesn’t need to turn to know what he’s seeing. Blood. A mess. Sungyeol’s lifeless body. Woohyun has two seconds to throw his gun at L – barely impeding his progress even as it lands with a solid thud on his chest – and scramble for a new weapon. Sunggyu has long since let up on Woohyun’s wrist, scooting back to find a weapon himself, probably.

L’s first target isn’t Woohyun – he heads straight for Sungyeol, picking him up almost gently, cradling the neck like he needs to be careful – and that’s the only reason why Woohyun even has time to grab the first thing that looks like a weapon. It’s a pocket knife, almost hidden under the coffee table and Woohyun must have missed it earlier. Doesn’t matter. He’s just glad he found something useful. But the moment Woohyun flips out the blade, he realises that it’s _Sungyeol’s_ swiss army knife that he’s holding.

(No time to think about that now.)

Woohyun adjusts the grip of the blade in his hand. It isn’t silver, but it’s still better than nothing. It would at least hurt L enough to slow him down, even if the wounds would heal too quickly for any real damage to be done. Before he has time to reconsider – before L has time to realise what he’s doing – Woohyun’s already turning, lunging to drive the knife into L’s chest. But that turns out to be a bad idea, because he forgot L was the one who wanted him dead all along.

( _Him_ – Woohyun – and not Sunggyu.)

L turns around before the blade even touches him, grabbing Woohyun’s forearm with a grip unnaturally tight, forcing him to drop the knife. It’s only deeply ingrained reflexes that keep Woohyun from jerking at the pain, instead using the sudden change in momentum to turn, his leg swinging out to land a kick on L’s calf.

_Gyu! Gun! Silver bullets in the study, quick!_

Woohyun doesn’t have time to check if Sunggyu got the message over the psychic link, but he hears scrambling, and then his full attention is back on L, trying not to let the vampire overpower him. It takes every muscle he has to hold him back. L’s angling for Woohyun’s jugular, his fangs gleaming an unnatural stark white, eyes clouded. If Woohyun thought they were empty earlier, he was wrong, because the look in L’s eyes _now_ is far scarier. It’s not one Woohyun has ever seen in any creature – even cold unfeeling centuries-old vampires – and it’s almost as if there’s no one home behind those eyes, like he’s wrestling an empty beast whose only goal is to kill him and doesn’t care for anything else. Even though Woohyun’s fighting as hard as he can, he has nothing on L’s supernatural strength. Add in the single-mindedness L’s vacant eyes suggest, and Woohyun has almost no chance on ever outmuscling L, but he can’t give up, he _can’t_ –

_Bang._

The gunshot is so sudden, Woohyun doesn’t hear the shot itself as much as the ringing in his ears from the aftermath. L staggers, blood seeping out of his shoulder, but it’s barely more than a flesh wound, even if the skin isn’t healing back because the bullet is silver. Woohyun’s not even two steps away before L’s grabbing for him again. He drops, trying to avoid L, and then –

Another shot, about as useful as the first. L doesn’t even halt. Woohyun quickly turns – never a good idea to have his back to his opponent – and at that moment, the front door opens. Woohyun catches a glimpse of Hoya before he’s just a blur, launching himself onto L. L tumbles. Woohyun quickly steps back. Hoya’s shifted partially mid-jump, and he’s sinking his panther claws deep into L’s chest, grabbing, _digging_ , and Woohyun’s searching for something that would help. Sunggyu looks like he would throw the gun towards Woohyun – he’s the better shooter after all – but Hoya and L are a blurred mess of limbs in between, and it’s too risky. But then, Sunggyu’s eyes widen a little and –

_Dawn._

Woohyun hears his thought loud and clear. For a moment, the connection between them is so strong that Woohyun _feels_ the hair on his own nape stand, except it’s really _Sunggyu’s_ hair standing, reacting because he knows that dawn is just around the corner. And he’s not sure who thought of it first, but the windows are just behind Woohyun, and he’s already turning around, reaching to grab the thick curtains, frantically pulling them. At the back of his mind, Woohyun feels Sunggyu running to hide, feels it like it’s his own two legs taking those too-wide steps, except he’s standing in front of the window, legs astride as he pushes the curtains apart, but the sky is still just this shade of dark. Woohyun whirls around, vaguely registering the sight of Hoya on the ground, claws buried in L’s shoulder and chest. L is above him, a bloody mess but still powering through, and Woohyun’s worried that it’s going to be too late, that it won’t be _in time_ , but then he feels it –

_The first arrival of dawn._

When the first rays of light stretches into the room, Hoya manages to untangle himself from L, hurriedly shoving him towards the window as he rolls away. By then, the sunlight has reached halfway across the room, painting the floor a faint yellow, and then Woohyun has to close his eyes because L is burning.

 

 

It takes a while before Woohyun dares to open his eyes. Even though he had seen the brightness of the unnatural fire through his eyelids and knows that that has stopped for a while now, he’s still hesitant to face the actual outcome. Woohyun has never seen a vampire burn before, but he doesn’t need to to know that it would not be a pretty sight. As it is, the house already smells charred and something worse. But then Woohyun remembers Hoya – injured from the fight – and Sunggyu – potentially still bleeding even if he manages to hide from the sun – and he forces himself to open his eyes and get up. He avoids looking at the blackened mess in the middle of his living room as best as he can, and heads for Hoya. But it seems Hoya has other priorities, because even though he’s lying on the ground panting, all bruises and bloodied skin, the first thing he says is, “Check Sunggyu first.”

Woohyun vaguely registers that Hoya’s back to his fully human form now – no claws in sight although his hands are bloody – and he should check on him, check for any injuries behind all the blood on his body, but Hoya’s eyes are firm, and Woohyun decides to trust him. Besides, Sunggyu’s going to be out very soon since dawn has arrived, and they need to make sure he’s alright before he’s dead to the day. Woohyun dashes into the nearest room.

“Sunggyu!”

“Close the door, the light…”

Woohyun shuts the door quickly. He can’t see well with the room now dark, but he hears Sunggyu mumble.

“I’m going to be out soon. I’m okay. Just. Take care…”

The words trail off, and Woohyun belatedly remembers that he can switch on the artificial lights. Now that he can see, it only takes a while for Woohyun to find Sunggyu under the study table, wedged behind a chair, a jacket covering his face.  Woohyun gently removes the jacket. Sunggyu doesn’t move – he’s already drifting off. When Woohyun presses his palm to Sunggyu’s forehead, he can feel the warmness of Sunggyu’s skin, but he knows it’s going to get cold soon. Sunggyu’s gone for the day. But Woohyun doesn’t let that stop him from checking the wound on Sunggyu’s chest. He breathes a sigh of relief when he finds a shiny white scar in place of the bleeding wound earlier.

 _Sunggyu’s fine. He’ll wake up tomorrow._ _Thank god._

Woohyun quickly examines him for any other injuries. He doesn’t find any, and is about to return to Hoya when he spots it: the red rawness on Sunggyu’s fingertips, hidden because his hands had been curled into fists. Woohyun’s wondering when and how that happened – _it must have been after Sunggyu drank his blood, because the blood would have at least helped to heal the burns partially –_ until he remembers what he had asked Sunggyu to do earlier during the fight.

 _Gun. Silver bullets_.

Sunggyu got these from loading the gun.

His chest suddenly feels a little tight. Before he registers what he’s doing, Woohyun’s pressing the lightest of kiss to the back of Sunggyu’s hand, careful not to touch the burned skin. Then, he rearranges Sunggyu’s hands carefully so his fingertips are not touching anything. What he’s doing is barely anything – burn cream would be much more useful if he has any – but it’s all Woohyun can do for now. Making a mental note to get something for Sunggyu’s injuries later, Woohyun hurries back out to check on Hoya.

 

 

Hoya has sat up with his back against the wall in the time Woohyun was in the study. His phone is lying on the ground, bloody prints all over it, and right now he’s wincing while trying to remove his shirt.

“What – How badly are you injured?” Woohyun asks, trying not to sound overly worried as he hurries over to help Hoya out of his shirt.

“It’s mostly superficial, nothing I can’t heal in a day with some rest and food, but –”

“But?” The worry has seeped into Woohyun’s voice without him realising, and Hoya gives him a wane smile.

“But I think my shoulder got pulled during the fight. I need to push it back in place –”

Woohyun suddenly notices the way Hoya’s clearly favouring one shoulder even though he’s just leaning against the wall –

“– if not it’ll heal back funny. But don’t worry, I already called Kwangsuk, he’s coming over to help.”

Woohyun can’t stop staring at Hoya’s shoulder, the angle of it slightly strange now that he’s looking at it closely. He should have noticed it earlier. But it wouldn’t help to play the blame game now, so what Woohyun says instead is, “Why do you need to call him? I can fix your shoulder back in place too.”

Hoya gives him a crooked smile, though it’s not as wide as it could be because he’s in pain. “I know you can. It’ll be too late if I was waiting for Kwangsuk anyway. My shoulder would have healed back at the wrong angle and we’ll have to pull it out in order to fix it back again.” Woohyun winces at the thought. It’s one of the issues with enhanced healing – tissues and skin heal faster but they don’t care if the bones aren’t in place, so the end result might actually be worse than if the injury had healed at a human-slow rate. Hoya exchanges a knowing look with Woohyun, grimaces a little, then continues, “Anyway, I called Kwangsuk to help with, you know… the rest of the mess.”

Woohyun has been actively blocking out the rest of the living room from the moment he had walked in, but the mental image of what he had seen earlier comes back too easily. He has to swallow a few times before he can speak.

“That’s… good.” It means he wouldn’t be the one dealing with it. Cowardly as it may be, Woohyun’s not about to question the little grace he’s been given. Then, because he needs something to take his mind off the mess behind him, and because Hoya’s injury needs to be tended to soon, Woohyun says, “Come on, let me help you with your shoulder.”

 

 

Later, Kwangsuk and a few other werepanthers turn up to help with clean up. Hoya gives them some instructions, but he leaves them afterwards, turning around to ask for Woohyun for help in the shower. They both know it’s an excuse – Hoya’s shoulder has mostly healed back after Woohyun set it in place while they were waiting for Kwangsuk – but Woohyun’s glad anyway. He doesn’t want to be around to see Hoya’s werepanthers clean up the mess.

(He doesn’t need more images to haunt him later.)

Woohyun also decides to ignore how none of Hoya’s pack had batted an eyelid when they had laid eyes on the carnage. There are some things he’s better off not knowing. He follows Hoya into the bathroom, sidestepping the now-useless zip ties lying on the floor.

(The list of things he doesn’t want to know or remember just keeps growing.)

When Woohyun and Hoya are eventually done showering, the pack is gone, their living room is clean (if missing a carpet and some furniture) and there’s even some food and medical supplies on the table.

“They’re efficient,” Woohyun says, “Your pack.” Hoya nods silently, eyelids closing although he settles down at the kitchen counter to unwrap the takeaway. After a while of watching Hoya eat half-heartedly, Woohyun gently says, “You should go sleep, Howon-ah.”

When there’s no protest – at either the suggestion or the use of his given name – Woohyun knows Hoya is more tired than he had let on.

“Let’s get you to bed.”

“Hmm…”

Hoya leans on him the whole way to the bedroom, falling asleep before Woohyun even tucks him in. It’s not a surprise that he’s exhausted. The fight and rapid healing afterwards would have been enough to tired anyone out, even Hoya. Hell, if he’s being honest, Woohyun’s really fucking tired as well. His body aches, there are recent bruises on his arms and his mind is foggy. Still, despite all that, Woohyun’s not sure if he can fall asleep.

(He’s not sure if he wants to fall asleep.)

So instead, Woohyun gets up to buy burn cream for Sunggyu.

 

 

It’s only later, after tending to Sunggyu’s injuries, checking that Hoya’s still sleeping, eating all of the takeout by himself (gosh, he had been _famished_ ) and replying a text message from Sungjong acknowledging the vampire’s overnight stay in Ansan (it had been too late for Sungjong to make it back before dawn) does Woohyun finally let himself rest. He had contemplated sleeping on the sofa, but there’s no sofa in his living room anymore (not that he wants to be in the living room now), so Woohyun tries not to jostle Hoya as he slips into their bed. He keeps as still as he can, closing his eyes waiting for sleep to come. It doesn’t take long for the exhaustion to sink in. Woohyun feels himself drifting off into uneasy rest, but just as his consciousness is about to slip off, the image of Sungyeol looking at him moments before he had fired his gun flashes in his mind.

_Fuck._

Woohyun’s sitting up so quickly, he’s surprised that Hoya hasn’t stirred.

_Fuck…_

Maybe this is why he had been subconsciously avoiding sleep. Because now that Woohyun has seen it in his mind’s eye again, he can’t unsee the look Sungyeol had given him moments before his chest bloomed red.

_…fuck..._

He scrubs a hand over his face. It isn’t even just regular guilt from killing someone – no, Woohyun had experienced that before, years and years ago, and this isn’t it. Besides the fact that his guilt trips come in the form of nightmares and he’s wide awake right now, there’s something different about this from the endless recurring nightmares he had had about killing someone before – nightmares he couldn’t stop even as he had come to terms with the fact that it’s sometimes necessary to kill in order to survive (in order to protect). Woohyun had been too busy during the fight to really notice it earlier, but now, in the quiet aftermath of the night, all he can see is Sungyeol’s eyes moments before his finger pulled the trigger – an odd look, a slight hesitation. And then he remembers something else – Sungyeol’s a _were_ , he’s definitely faster than Woohyun even though Woohyun’s a practiced shooter, and even if his leg had been shot, there’s no reason why he would be _slower_ to shoot than Woohyun – and _then,_ Woohyun realises:

If Sungyeol had really wanted to, he could have shot him first.

_Fuck._

Woohyun gets out of bed. He wouldn’t be getting any sleep anytime soon now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rushed a/n because I should be doing work, but I just want to say thanks to those who commented and kudosed. It honestly makes me happy to hear what you think of my story, and I'm glad people enjoy what I've put effort into. I'm always excited to write my own stories (actually, more like excited to _read_ what happens next in my own stories because writing is still a pain) but it's a different kind of motivation knowing that what I'm doing is appreciated by others as well :)
> 
> Also, an a/b/o hoyeol oneshot I wrote recently: [Individuals, not stereotypes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9225080), if you want to check it out~


	14. Fault

XIV.

Hoya is the first to wake up.

“Hyun, are you cooking?”

Woohyun hums, but he doesn’t actually answer. He’s focused on the pan, checking the meat isn’t burnt while he grabs some paper towels to wipe up the grease splatters. Hoya lightly loops his arms around Woohyun.

“Did you sleep?” Hoya asks as he leans his chest against Woohyun’s back. Normally, Woohyun would relax into the embrace, but today, right now, hours after their living room has been cleaned up and long after Woohyun has gone to the supermarket to buy ingredients to cook because he couldn’t stand replaying the same scenes in his mind over and over as sleep had eluded him, Woohyun’s tense. He thinks Hoya notices, but he doesn’t mention it, just clasps his hands around Woohyun’s waist and presses in closer.

“A little,” Woohyun lies, then decides to change the direction of the conversation. He doesn’t need Hoya to worry about him right now. “Come on, I didn’t buy all the meat from the supermarket and cook this for nothing. Let’s eat and regain our strength, hmm?”

Hoya noses at the curve of Woohyun’s neck, and Woohyun’s worried that he has picked up that something’s wrong – is going to make Woohyun _talk_ about it. But then, Hoya snuggles in deeper against Woohyun’s shoulder, and all he says is, “Sounds good. The steak smells delicious.”

Woohyun relaxes a little then, puts on a small smile that isn’t entirely faked. “That’s a given, because I cooked it, you know.” He turns, tweaks Hoya’s nose, then makes him bring out the plates and utensils.

“Let’s eat.”

 

 

The sun has set by the time Woohyun and Hoya finishes washing up from their dinner (breakfast). Woohyun’s phone buzzes. He has a new message from Sungjong, letting him know that the vampire’s coming back now. Woohyun asks him to come to the penthouse, and has only just pocketed his phone when Sunggyu emerges from the study.

“I –”

Before Sunggyu can say anything else, Woohyun says, “You need to drink up first. We can’t leave your burns like that. You won’t be able to do anything.”

Hoya blinks, head tilting to one side and Woohyun realises he had forgotten to tell him about the burns on Sunggyu’s fingers when they were talking during dinner. To be fair, he had been generally avoiding anything related to what happened last night, and Hoya had been understanding enough to let Woohyun ramble on about the prices at the supermarket without asking what’s wrong. But that’s not going to happen now, Woohyun thinks as his eyes follow Hoya’s gaze to Sunggyu’s bandaged fingers.

“Hoya, you’re more injured than I am,” Woohyun starts, wondering if he should mention that the burns on Sunggyu’s fingers are technically his fault, so he should be the one offering blood. But then Hoya cuts in –

“I _was_ more injured,” he corrects lightly, then adds, “I’m a werepanther, remember? I’m sure I’ve healed more than you by now, so if anyone’s to be offering blood, it should be me.”

Woohyun wants to protest, but then Hoya gives him a soft peck on the side of his head, and mumbles, “You should put up the walls on your psychic link. I can hear you in my head.”

Woohyun twists around to look at him, then scrambles to close the link from his side. He wonders if Hoya was the only one who has heard – if _Sunggyu_ has heard too – when Sunggyu says, voice low and quiet, “It’s not your fault.”

Woohyun turns to face Sunggyu. His mouth opens but he’s not sure what to say. In the end, Hoya interrupts them both.

“Maybe Sunggyu should feed first.”

It’s a reasonable suggestion – they all need sustenance to heal and Hoya and Woohyun have done what they can by eating a lot just now, but Sunggyu needs to feed too – so Woohyun feels himself nod. He’s about to turn and go back to the kitchen, leave the two of them alone so Sunggyu can drink from Hoya  in private – the way they’ve done it whenever one of them feeds Sunggyu in the past week – but then Hoya’s hand wraps around his wrist.

“Don’t go –”

It’s phrased as a question, but Woohyun’s not entirely sure if the question is just for him. He looks at Hoya, then at Sunggyu, and then Sunggyu slowly holds out a hand.

There’s a brief moment when Woohyun considers just continuing his way back to the kitchen, but that moment passes quickly, and Woohyun finds himself slipping his hand into Sunggyu’s. There’s something not-quite-right about this – the odd exchange they’ve just had, heavy with unspoken meanings and words unsaid – but in the aftermath of what happened, Woohyun can’t find it in himself to question it too much. He doesn’t want to, not when it feels so familiar, having Sunggyu and Hoya by his side, all of them still alive despite everything that has happened. And after the many hours of doubt and endless repetition of last night’s happenings in his head before Hoya woke up, Woohyun can’t find it in himself to resist this little bit of comfort he has just been offered. Maybe this is really not quite right, and maybe it will blow up in their faces later – the things they’ve not discussed – but for now, Woohyun pushes those thoughts away, and quietly follows Hoya and Sunggyu into their bedroom.

 

 

Woohyun watches Hoya sit on the edge of the bed, feels him let go of his wrist as he settles down comfortably. Beside him, Sunggyu releases his hand as well, then walks towards the bed until he’s just in front of Hoya, leaning forward ever so slightly. Hoya brings a hand to rest on Sunggyu’s waist, probably to keep him steady, and then Sunggyu lowers his head to Hoya’s neck, his palm flat across the top of Hoya’s chest as his tongue darts out. There’s a flash of fangs, Woohyun’s eyes locked on the movement of Sunggyu’s mouth as he latches onto the column of Hoya’s neck, his lips against Hoya’s skin – sucking – and then, the only thing Woohyun does is watch the bob of Sunggyu’s Adam’s apple as he drinks.

He doesn’t realise he’s just standing there until Hoya removes his hand from around Sunggyu’s waist to hold his hand, pulling him closer. Woohyun lets Hoya do that, pull him until he’s just beside Sunggyu and has to put an arm around Sunggyu’s waist to brace himself. He stays in this position while Sunggyu drinks, the three of them in an almost-hug but not quite, feeling Sunggyu’s skin warm up against his arm and side from taking Hoya’s blood. Woohyun’s still not quite sure what to feel about this. _This_ being what’s happening in front of him, but also many other things.

(He wishes he can stop thinking about last night.)

But when Sunggyu is eventually done, his mouth slightly bloody as his tongue peeks out to lick the rest of the blood away, Woohyun has decided that maybe it doesn’t matter, because he was – still is – willing to go through anything to keep the two of them safe, even if it means he would be haunted by nightmare and images for the rest of his life. Squeezing his eyes close to block out the faraway gunshots he hears in the back of his mind, Woohyun feels Hoya’s fingers coming to nudge against his forearm, comforting, but also a _question_. Woohyun thinks ( _knows_ ) that Hoya probably wants to say something ( _ask_ him something, something he had probably wanted to ask since he woke up to Woohyun cooking an elaborate dinner for no apparent reason when he could have just ordered takeout) but then, suddenly, their doorbell rings.

“It’s Sungjong. I’m at the lobby. I need you to buzz me up.”

 

 

The first thing Sungjong says as he steps into the apartment is, “What happened to your living room?” and Woohyun belatedly remembers that none of them had updated their second-in-command on last night’s happenings while he had been chasing what they thought was a lead in Ansan.

“L and his animal-to-call happened,” Woohyun ends up saying when no one immediately answers. Hoya fills him in on the rest – the fight that’s responsible for the somewhat spartan state of their living room, and more importantly, the fact that L and his animal-to-call are “no longer threats now” (Hoya’s words). Why Hoya doesn’t just say “they’re dead now” or “we killed them”, Woohyun doesn’t know – well, no, he does, sort of. It’s probably Hoya’s way of being concerned (concerned for _him_ ), but Woohyun can’t help but think that no matter how nicely it’s phrased, the two of them are dead anyway.

(Killed by Woohyun’s own two hands.)

“L’s animal-to-call turned out to be Sungyeol,” Woohyun remembers to add later when he realises they didn’t mention that to Sungjong in their retelling. With all the things going on in his head, Woohyun’s comment comes a little too late in the conversation, and by the time he says it, the four of them have already moved from standing at the door to sitting at the dining table. Sungjong’s face flickers surprise at the name, but it only lasts for a second before his eyes grow dark.

“So was that their plan all along? Planting Sungyeol undercover so he could get close to Woohyun, then create a diversion to draw our attention away so they could get him? _God,_ I should have realised that there was something fishy when I got there and couldn’t get a trace of L at all.”

Beside Woohyun, Hoya shoots Sungjong a quiet look across the table, then says in a tone that somehow manages to be firm but soothing at the same time, “None of us knew, don’t blame yourself.”

The look Sungjong gives him is bland, to say the least, but the vampire doesn’t otherwise react to Hoya’s words. Instead, he says, “So, let me get this straight. Sungyeol drugged and kidnapped Woohyun. What happened after that? How did you guys all end up here?

“Woohyun told me where to go over the link,” Hoya answers, then adds, “I don’t know how Sunggyu knew to come here though.” His brow arches just slightly, a question thrown in Sunggyu’s direction.

_I’ll like to know the answer to that as well,_ Woohyun thinks, eyes drifting to Sunggyu who hasn’t said much in the whole conversation so far.  Sungjong isn’t as obvious about his staring, merely side-eyeing Sunggyu for a second, but it’s enough to make Sunggyu look up.

“…Sungyeol called me,” Sunggyu says. He glances in Woohyun and Hoya’s general direction but not at either of them before looking back down on his own hands. “It was after Hoya drove off to the club to find Woohyun because Sungjong left for Ansan. Sungyeol called me then, told me he had Woohyun, but if I met him alone, he was willing to let Woohyun go. He gave me an address, and I didn’t notice that it was the address of this place until I was in front of the block.”

Woohyun lets the information sink in and then –

“You actually believed him and went alone? What were you thinking?” Sungjong asks, the same time Hoya says, “Why didn’t you tell me before you went?”

Sunggyu clears his throat. “I –”

“Were you trying to do everything by yourself again?” Woohyun asks quietly (too quietly), and something in Sunggyu’s expression shifts.

“I wasn’t –”

“You realise you’re still doing the _same_ thing you’ve always done?” Woohyun says, trying to keep his voice even, even though the simmering anger he always has for Sunggyu rises and seeps into his words. “You always try to do everything on your own, the way you gave Sungjong _orders_ to go to Ansan without me, the way you just _decided_ to find Sungyeol by yourself without even telling anyone.” Woohyun would add more but there’s a lump growing in his throat, and he doesn’t want a repeat of what happened the last time he had tried to talk about this with Sunggyu, so he stops. Crying in front of Sunggyu had been bad enough; he doesn’t need to cry in front of Sungjong as well.

“Fuck, Woohyun, what do you want me to do?” Sunggyu’s eyes have the faintest rim of red around the iris, the first sign of his vampiric powers rising to the surface, although no one in this room is susceptible to mind tricks so it doesn’t really do anything. All it does is alert Woohyun to the fact that this time, Sunggyu’s _reacting_ instead of remaining silent like he did the last time they had this conversation. That sudden flare of vampire power only happens with strong emotions (or hunger, but he already fed on Hoya earlier), and Woohyun’s vaguely glad that Sunggyu’s affected by his words this time, though maybe glad isn’t the right word. He can’t quite pinpoint _what_ exactly Sunggyu is feeling, but something is better than nothing. Before Woohyun can say anything though, Sunggyu’s continuing –

“I know it wasn’t the best move to meet Sungyeol alone, but this whole thing… It was all my fault, and I just wanted to make things right again –”

“Look, it wasn’t any one person’s fault,” Hoya tries to say, but Woohyun’s not as patient.

“Sunggyu, can you _stop_ thinking you’re the only one at fault? _I_ was the one who drank whatever it was that Sungyeol offered and got myself drugged and kidnapped. I’m at fault too. When will you realise that not everything is your damn fault, and that you don’t have to take responsibility for everything?”

Woohyun stares at Sunggyu across the table, his breathing coming a little too fast from saying everything in one angered breath. Sunggyu snaps his head up then, eyes glowering, the red in his iris darker now, and Woohyun’s glad he’s running on adrenaline, anger and lack of sleep, because he doesn’t have enough survival instincts to back down when Sunggyu focuses those intense eyes on him.

“You didn’t _get_ my point. Sure, maybe that part was your fault, but why did this whole thing with L even start? It was because of _me_! _I_ was fucking selfish and _I_ fucked up, okay! If I didn’t run away, I wouldn’t have met Dongwoo, and if I didn’t meet Dongwoo, I wouldn’t have killed him, and none of this would have happened! I was just trying to take responsibility for my actions –”

Sunggyu’s not the only one who can raise his voice, Woohyun can too –

“Yeah, about _that_ , care to explain? Why did you suddenly disappear on us without a word? Also, you told Sungyeol you were _helping_ Dongwoo, helping their human servant by _killing_ him. What was that about? And while we’re on the topic of you being fucking noble, do you want to explain what you were doing telling Sungyeol you didn’t mind dying by yourself but can’t let us die?”

Woohyun’s so caught up in letting out the barrage of questions he has for Sunggyu, he forgets the last bit is news to Hoya (and Sungjong), until he hears a sharp inhale.

“ _Sunggyu_ ,” Hoya says, the word heavy with _something_ – hurt? Woohyun isn’t entirely sure, “What is this about not minding dying by yourself but not wanting us to die?”

Sunggyu’s gaze flickers from Woohyun to Hoya, blinking, brows knitting. Then, like a switch has been flipped, he suddenly deflates, all the tension in his posture and intensity in his eyes sapping away. He leans back in his seat, not answering. Woohyun stares at him, waiting, and he’s about to say something (anything), when Sungjong suddenly sighs.

“You can’t keep doing this, Sunggyu.”

There’s a tiredness in Sungjong’s voice that Woohyun hasn’t heard before, and more than the words themselves, _that_ makes Woohyun think Sungjong’s not just referring to Sunggyu keeping silent whenever he has things he doesn’t want to talk about.

“What is this about, Sungjong? Do you know something?”

Hoya leans forward. “Is that… were you…”

“Helping Sunggyu?” Sungjong asks with a laugh, the sound humorless. “Yeah. Except I shouldn’t have.” He casts an apologetic glance in Woohyun and Hoya’s direction, before facing Sunggyu. “Look, I’ve done this for long enough. I’m not going to help you keep this secret any more. Even if you command me to keep mum using your position over me as the Master Vampire of Seoul, I’m not going to care now. They need to know.”

A pause. Sunggyu doesn’t move, his face almost completely still but for the closing of his eyes.

Sungjong speaks again. “If you’re not going to tell them, I will.”

This time, Sunggyu reacts. His eyes fly open, and he sits up. “No.” Then a little less loudly, he adds, “I’ll… I’ll tell them myself. I’m sorry, Sungjong. You’ve done enough. I… should tell them this myself.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't update this for two weeks, and when I do, it's a cliffhanger ending, haha. Okay, but to be fair, they need time to wind down before they start tackling the Sunggyu issues, yeah? Also, I did other stuff between updates:
> 
> 1\. I made a cover for Three ([CLICK](http://stillcian1675.tumblr.com/post/155854189031/an-edit-i-did-for-a-fic-im-writing-read-three-on)). It's on the first chapter as well. :)  
> 2\. I drew woogyu from ch10 ([CLICK](http://stillcian1675.tumblr.com/post/155971643705/fiftyseven-woogyu-in-chapter-10-of-three-read)). (Warning for blood-sucking (?) though it's not very graphic)
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you think!
> 
> Also, Chelsie beta-ed this chapter and she did it really fast (thanks so much ahhh~), so this chapter is updated earlier than I thought it would be :)


	15. You don’t have to do this alone

XV.

Woohyun would be lying if he says he’s not very ( _very_ ) interested to know what Sunggyu is about to say, but he tries not to let it show. He catches himself before he leans forward to rest his elbows on the table, not sure if that would somehow disturb the tentative promise of Sunggyu’s explanation. He’s holding his breath, _waiting_ , but he isn’t prepared for what Sunggyu says first –

“Hyun –”

Woohyun feels his lungs expand a little – an involuntary inhale – but the air doesn’t quite fill up his chest. “Y-yeah?”

“Do you remember, years ago, when we were only contemplating the triumvirate link, you asked me what the point of having a human in a triumvirate is?”

His memories are a little fuzzy around the edges, but Woohyun thinks he remembers the conversation Sunggyu’s talking about. “Yeah…?”

“Do you remember my answer?”

Woohyun frowns, recalling. “It was… something about humanity? You said that’s what humans have, which vampires and weres don’t.”

Sunggyu looks at him, something akin to a smile on his lips but it doesn’t have any of the joy such an expression should contain. Woohyun think he looks sad, or something close to it, but before he can pinpoint what that is exactly, Sunggyu’s asking, “Did you understand what I meant then?”

Woohyun glances briefly at Hoya, catching a confused face that probably mirrors his own. He doesn’t know why Sunggyu’s talking about this, but he’s not going to derail the first opportunity they have to figure out why Sunggyu left. Under the table, Hoya reaches for his hand, lightly squeezing. It’s a silent reassurance, but also a request to just go along with what Sunggyu’s doing for now. Woohyun curls his fingers over Hoya’s, squeezing back.

“Not really, no,” Woohyun answers.

Sunggyu can probably see their joined hands from across the table, but he doesn’t mention it. Instead he looks a little in the distance, then smiles – and Woohyun’s almost certain it’s sadness tinged in the little upward quirk of Sunggyu’s lips.

“Yeah, well,” Sunggyu says after a while, “I thought I knew, but apparently I didn’t either.”

Woohyun has no idea what he means. Sunggyu continues anyway.

“Just now, when I woke up, I could taste the lingering flavours of steak and wine in my mouth.”

Woohyun shares another look with Hoya. That was what they had for dinner earlier, and it’s not really a surprise that Sunggyu can taste food through them if he had been awake while they were eating – that is one of the things they can share through their triumvirate link after all – but he’s getting a little lost in Sunggyu’s seemingly disjointed lines of thought.

“Do you remember one of the first tests we did after we formed the triumvirate link?” Sunggyu asks when no one says anything.

“…Yeah,” Hoya answers after a beat. “Food. You tasted food through us, for the first time in centuries since you were turned.” Hoya stares at Sunggyu, little lines forming between his eyebrows as he thinks, and then the creases suddenly smoothens out as he blurts out, “This is… this is something related to what we share through the link, isn’t it?”

Sunggyu turns a little, shifting his focus to Hoya, then nods slightly. Woohyun observes Sunggyu rub his hands on his thighs in the meantime, the nervous gesture a little strange to see, especially when Sunggyu’s seated beside Sungjong and the other vampire is almost stone-still. Woohyun’s wondering why he finds the movement strange – it’s just wiping his palms on his pants; Woohyun and Hoya both do it sometimes – until he remembers: nervous tics are a very human gesture that most vampires lose over the years.

And then, a thought suddenly occurs to him.

“Is it related to humanity?” Woohyun asks, going on nothing but a hunch. “… _My_ …humanity?”

When Sunggyu looks at him, his eyes are warm, but sad – and Woohyun’s sure that it’s sadness now – and he almost chuckles before he replies.

“Yes… and no. It’s related to your humanity, yes, but the problem is with mine.”

Woohyun feels his brows furrow. _Sunggyu’s… humanity? What…? Is this what this is about? But hadn’t he said that vampires don’t have humanity, or at least, not in the way humans do?_

Turning the seemingly conflicting thoughts over in his head, Woohyun tries to make sense of what Sunggyu has just said. Beside him, Hoya’s probably busy processing what he has just heard as well. When neither of them says anything after a while, Sunggyu picks up where he left off, “I… I ran away, because I didn’t know what else to do.”

He laughs then, a short dry sound, and Woohyun thinks it sounds like _him_ when he’s being self-deprecating.

(It doesn’t sound like Sunggyu, except Woohyun can’t exactly say that because he suddenly realises that he can’t remember what Sunggyu’s laughter – his genuine laughter – sounded like in the past.)

Sunggyu doesn’t wait for their reaction, merely continuing as if he needs to get everything out at once. “Imagine being a vampire, never realising how numb your emotions have become over the years. And then one day, you can suddenly feel again, the full spectrum of things, happiness, sadness, guilt… _morality_. That… that was how I felt, when we joined. I knew, theoretically, that that would be the case – I was even looking forward to it in some ways, feeling _alive_ again – but I didn’t quite expect myself to… feel as much as I did. As much as I _do_ –”

He takes a breath – an unnecessary gesture, now that Woohyun thinks about it, and he doesn’t know why he hasn’t noticed before, that Sunggyu’s behaviour is a lot different from other vampires, a lot more _human_ –

“So I did the only thing I knew how to do. I tried to make it stop. I ignored the feelings that felt like they weren’t mine. I told myself it was just _you_ , just Woohyun’s presence bleeding through, but then I couldn’t be sure –”

A swallow this time, yet another unneeded gesture –

“But to be really sure, I had to put up my mental walls, shut the psychic link completely. But I couldn’t do that, not while we were all running the city together. And you know, as a Master of the City, I had to do sometimes painful things, ruthless things, to ensure order –”

Woohyun tries not to shudder, the memories of what they had to do sometimes to keep the peace in the supernatural community. He knows he had always gotten the easier end of things, jobs like running the club, paperwork, while Hoya and Sunggyu had dealt with the harsher parts of their duties – the actual enforcement of order and sometimes punishment of rogues and those who threatened their power structure – and maybe he sometimes thought they didn’t think he was competent enough for it (not _strong_ enough), but sometimes he was also glad that he didn’t have to handle all of that. Woohyun had always thought Sunggyu was the one least bothered by the ruthless things they had to do – he had always seemed the most calm and collected – but maybe Woohyun had been wrong the whole time –

 _No_ , correction, he _is_ wrong; Sunggyu’s pretty much telling him that now. Woohyun doesn’t realise he’s squeezing Hoya’s hand too tightly while listening to Sunggyu until Hoya brings his free hand to rest on top of Woohyun’s, loosening his fingers, trying to get him to relax.  Woohyun pulls his hand out from between Hoya’s, settles for just resting it lightly on Hoya’s knee.

“Is that why you ran away?” Woohyun asks softly when Sunggyu’s voice trails off.

Sunggyu blinks slowly, eyes a little distant, the last of the red rimming his irises gone, leaving them a deep dark brown. He closes his eyes. “Part of it, yes.”

Woohyun wants to ask what the other part is, but he knows he should let Sunggyu finish saying what he needs to first, so he holds his tongue. “Oh.”

Sunggyu runs a hand through his hair, blowing out a breath before he lets his hand drop to the table.

“I… It got to the point where I couldn’t deal with what I had to do, my duties as Master of the City. So I ran. I ran away from my responsibilities, away from both of you. I had to shut down the psychic link; I needed to know how much of the guilt I was feeling, the judgement I had on my own actions, on the things I have done – most of them unpleasant, if necessary – were my own feelings and emotions, and mine alone. Sungjong found me quickly when I first ran away, but he went back to the both of you after I told him I just needed time to be alone and think this through. Except, when I was really alone and no longer affected by either of your feelings and thoughts seeping through the link or by your behaviour, I still…I still felt terrible.”

Sunggyu covers his face with both hands then, elbows propped on the table, and the room is quiet for a moment. Woohyun feels his heart beat against his ribcage, the sound of his own breathing too loud to his ears, and then, just when he thinks Sunggyu isn’t going to say anything else, his voice comes, thin and cracked, muffled by his palms. “I wondered, then, what the point of my existence was. Was there a point in continuing life as a vampire when I was suddenly no longer comfortable with what I was doing? What I _am_?”

There’s a sudden tight grip on his forearm – Hoya’s hand, Woohyun realises – and he hears the swallow before Hoya’s lips part, voice trembling a little when he says, “W-why didn’t you tell us?”

Sunggyu doesn’t reply, doesn’t even lift his face up from between his palms, and Woohyun feels Hoya release his grip on his arm. Hoya stands up, leaning over the table. Gently cupping Sunggyu’s cheek with one hand, he coaxes Sunggyu’s hands away from his face.

“Gyu, you… you should have told us that. Why… why were you trying to carry all your troubles by yourself?”

Now that Sunggyu’s face is no longer hidden, Woohyun can see that there’re fresh pinkish streaks on his cheeks – tears of blood – and Woohyun remembers that Hoya’s question is the same one he had been asking Sunggyu before, but it sounds different, very different, now that they know something more about the reasons behind Sunggyu’s leaving.

“I-I don’t know,” Sunggyu whispers, his head hanging low like he wants to cover his face again, but Hoya doesn’t let him.

“Sunggyu…”

Sunggyu squeezes his eyes shut, more tears running down his face. “I-I don’t know. I was fucking selfish, running away by myself like that and –”

Hoya’s hand on Sunggyu’s cheek tightens, pulling Sunggyu’s head up, and Hoya’s leaning even closer across the table, his face almost in Sunggyu’s as he cuts in, “Don’t say that. You weren’t being selfish –”

“Howon, _don’t_ ,” Sunggyu grits out. “I was being selfish, doing what I did –”

“Oh yeah, you were selfish alright,” Woohyun says, the words out of his mouth after a brief contemplation, earning an angry glare from Hoya. _Not right now_ , he can almost hear Hoya hiss under his breath, but Woohyun doesn’t think that’s what Sunggyu needs right now, to be told that he wasn’t selfish doing what he did, when he was. Sure, maybe running away wasn’t the most selfish thing to do – it could have been that he really just needed some time alone to sort things out – but surely, staying away for thirteen years without any form of contact counts as selfish. Woohyun ignores the hard look Hoya’s giving him, and the slightly surprised one from Sungjong’s direction.

“Sunggyu, don’t get me wrong, you were selfish to run away and _stay away_ from us for as long as you did without any contact, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have told us what you felt anyway.”

Hoya’s still glaring at him, and Woohyun thinks his words didn’t come out exactly right. He tries again. “What I mean is… you should have _told_ us. We’re not just your human servant and animal-to-call, we’re your lovers, and –” _you should have told us_ , Woohyun can say again, repeat the same thing he has been trying to tell Sunggyu the whole time, that he doesn’t have to do everything alone, that they’re there for him, that they can share his burden, his worries, but maybe he’s been saying it wrong the whole time, and what he needs instead is to say –

“We love you.”

Once the words are out, Woohyun thinks they’re the right ones. But just “we love you” isn’t the same thing as what he’s feeling. It isn’t enough.

“I...I love you.”

He doesn’t know what Hoya and Sunggyu’s reactions are, because Woohyun chokes up at the second word, tears rolling down his face in small droplets, breath hitching. But he still has one more thing to say, even if he has to say it over the huge lump in his throat –

“It was selfish, what you did, but I… I still love you, I still love you so, _so_ much.”

He had forgotten how to say those words to Sunggyu – forgotten he even had those words in him, years of anger (doubt, questions, confusion) burying everything he felt (everything he _feels_ ) deep inside – but now that he’s said them aloud, Woohyun doesn’t quite manage to hold back the quiet sobs spilling from his chest.

“W-why didn’t you t-tell us anything? Why didn’t w-we realise anything?”

There’s a warm palm on his back – Hoya’s – and then Woohyun’s being pulled up towards him. It’s only when he feels a different warmth – a different body – against his side does Woohyun realise that Hoya has his other arm wrapped around Sunggyu, and the two of them are now huddled together against Hoya chest.

“I…”

 _I’m sorry_ , Woohyun could say, but it isn’t really just his fault, just like it isn’t really just Sunggyu’s fault, or Hoya’s fault or even Sungjong’s. But _I love you_ sounds too trite, both simultaneously what he feels but also not enough to express what he wants to say, so in the end Woohyun just brings his hand around Sunggyu’s waist, pulling him in closer so the three of them are in a proper hug. He rests his head against Hoya’s shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent, then tilts his head a little so he’s touching Sunggyu’s shoulder as well. It’s not enough – maybe nothing will be – but for now, this is okay. Hoya holds them as they cry, Woohyun in huge wrecking sobs, Sunggyu in soft trembling sniffs, and when Woohyun feels the slight tremor of Hoya’s chest shaking, he thinks, maybe, Hoya’s crying as well, in that quiet way he always does.

And maybe this isn’t quite how things should be, but for now, it’s okay.

They’re okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunggyu talks in a roundabout way because he doesn't know how to say something he's been keeping to himself for 13 years, but I hope some things are clearer now :) And ah, to be honest, I am (was?) really excited to get this chapter out, so I actually spent last night and today working on it. There's still more that Sunggyu hasn't said (like why he killed Dongwoo), but we'll find out soon. Anyway, let me know what you think about this chapter! :)


	16. Spilled

XVI.

They stay like that for a while, until Sungjong clears his throat uneasily.

“I…I’m just going to go for now. I’ll take care of the club and get Kwangsuk to handle the were headquarters for today. The three of you… Take some time off to recover from… last night, okay?”

Sungjong’s already gone by the time Woohyun looks up, his back disappearing behind the closing door. With his face no longer against Hoya’s chest, Woohyun suddenly feels awkward, the sight of Hoya’s damp cheeks and Sunggyu’s pinkish ones a plain reminder of what just happened.

They were crying.

Hugging.

(Still hugging, in fact, though Woohyun feels like the skin of his arm resting against Sunggyu’s waist is too hot.)

“Uh,” Hoya mumbles, voice a little funny, but he sniffs and it comes out a little more normal when he continues, “Maybe… should we …”

It’s funny, how Woohyun isn’t the only one strangely awkward here, and he’s vaguely grateful when Sunggyu says –

“Bedroom?” only to hurriedly add, “Just, you know, to sit more comfortably and talk and…”

Yeah, okay, Woohyun’s definitely not the only one who feels awkward here.

 

 

They settle in the bedroom, Sunggyu and Hoya each on one side of the bed, Woohyun sitting cross-legged at the foot. There’s that urge to reach over, except Woohyun isn’t even sure who he wants to reach for, so he keeps his hands clasped, resting against his legs. Hoya shifts to lean his back against the headboard, bringing his legs up, but Sunggyu keeps his position, perched on the edge of the bed, feet still on the floor. Woohyun doesn’t know what to say – what they were planning on doing after they actually move their awkwardness into the bedroom – but he doesn’t need to because Sunggyu speaks first.

“I was in Jeju-do for a while, when I was away.”

So Sunggyu wants to talk about this then. Hoya looks a little surprised – probably because Sunggyu is talking about this on his own without either of them asking – but Woohyun can’t help but think that maybe this was long overdue; that once Sunggyu started talking, he would want to get everything out. Jeju had been one of the places Woohyun and Hoya had searched back when Sunggyu had just disappeared (along with most of Korea and even some parts of Japan), but they hadn’t found him there then. Still, it doesn’t do anything to bring that up now, so Woohyun doesn’t comment, just nods slightly, motioning for Sunggyu to continue.

Sunggyu takes a breath, before he closes his eyes. “It was where I met Dongwoo. I didn’t know he was a human servant at first. He was just a guy who frequented the convenience store where I worked for a while, and he started chatting to me one night.”

He can’t imagine Sunggyu in a bright vest, working in a convenience store – probably the midnight to dawn shift that no one wants – and Woohyun supposes that’s why Sunggyu chose that kind of job while he was away. Who’d think to search for a Master of the City in some small convenience store in Jeju? Looking over to Hoya, Woohyun sees creases forming on his forehead, his gaze focused on Sunggyu.

“What happened?” Hoya asks quietly.

Sunggyu turns to him, eyes slowly opening.

“We became friends. Sort of.”

An odd beat skips in his chest, but Woohyun takes in a deep breath to ease the feeling.

“And yet you…” _killed him_ , Woohyun almost says but he catches the words in time. Sunggyu seems to have caught on though.

“Killed him? Yes. I did. You’re probably wondering why I did that when we were sort of friends,” Sunggyu says, the corner of his mouth turning up in an almost ironic smile. Woohyun doesn’t refute the assumption.

“Yeah…”

Sunggyu presses his palms into his own thighs, not looking at anyone until Hoya reaches for his shoulder, gently squeezing.

“You don’t have to tell us everything at once if it’s difficult to,” Hoya mumbles, but Sunggyu shakes his head.

“No, no, I should say this before I lose the courage and momentum to.”

Hoya blinks, then slowly nods. He keeps his hand on Sunggyu’s shoulder, lightly stroking. It makes Woohyun feel a little left-out sitting where he is but he doesn’t move.

“Dongwoo was bright and smiling all the time,” Sunggyu says, “You’d never be able to tell he’s actually anything but.”

There’s a hint of something – nostalgia maybe, or just something that comes with remembering someone from the past – that colours Sunggyu’s tone. Woohyun wonders how close Sunggyu got to Dongwoo, how they could have been friends but also not exactly. Bright and smiling doesn’t sound like the kind of person Sunggyu would get close to, but who’s he to say he knows what kind of friends Sunggyu would have had when he’s coming to realise just how little of Sunggyu he had known ( _has_ known, is knowing, is coming to know).

“So, you’re saying he wasn’t just happy-go-lucky then?”

Sunggyu looks up at Woohyun’s question.

“No. No, he wasn’t.” A beat later, Sunggyu adds, “He… I think he was a generally happy person, but being immortal as a human servant changed him. Dongwoo had to watch his family and the people he cared about die –”

Woohyun recalls the countless funerals he couldn’t attend – his family’s, Kibum’s – because he couldn’t explain why he didn’t age while everyone around him did without also revealing what he has become –

“And I guess at some point he got tired. He asked me once, how I felt about existing for so long as a vampire, and you know what the funny thing is? I’d never had a problem with it before, before we formed the triumvirate, yet I had pretty much ran away just to think about that same question, and isn’t it funny how Dongwoo was asking me the same thing I had – still _have_ – no answer to?”

He knows now, why Sunggyu and Dongwoo became friends. They shared the same uncertainty over the purpose of their unnatural existence. Except, Woohyun has been filled with the same questions since the day he understood what agreeing to a triumvirate would mean, and…

(And Sunggyu never thought to share his worries with him.)

He’s aware enough to recognise that it’s jealousy he feels, which is why Woohyun settles for a more level-headed response –

“When you said you were helping Dongwoo by killing him… You really meant it, didn’t you?”

Sunggyu snorts, the sound startling Hoya and Woohyun both with how sharp it is.

“He didn’t want to live an immortal life anymore, so I guess you could say I was helping him by ending his life, but I had a selfish reason as well.”

Woohyun’s not sure if he wants to know, but he makes himself ask anyway.

“What was that selfish reason?”

“I… wanted to know if killing one part of a triumvirate would inadvertently kill the other two.”

Silence fills the room.

That is, until Hoya gets out a slightly shaky –

“What do you mean?”

Sunggyu doesn’t reply, but Woohyun thinks he can guess:

Sunggyu had wanted to know if he could die without bringing Hoya or Woohyun down with him through their link.

 

 

◂◂◂

_“Are you sure about this?”_

_“We’ve been through this before, I said I was –”_

_“Well, I just thought it wouldn’t hurt to remind you what this means –”_

_“That we’ll be joined together, all three of us, stronger but also together?” Forever, he thinks, but doesn’t say it. “Trust me, Sunggyu, I know. I’ve thought about this before, long and hard.”_

_“Yes, but you know the Fourth Mark is entirely your choice, Woohyun. And you know once you take my blood and Hoya’s, it’ll be irreversible. We’ll be tied together, in strength and weaknesses –”_

_“Is that what you’re afraid of? My weakness?”_

_“He doesn’t mean that, Woohyun.”_

_“Well, what do you mean then, Sunggyu? Are you having second thoughts now?”_

_“I would never.” A pause. “It’s just, I have enemies. Vampires who may want to kill me, maybe some weres too. I want both of you to be safe, and being with me, that’s not always safe. If one of us is severely injured or dies, it’ll bring the others down as well –”_

_“Stop being so pessimistic, we will be safe, all three of us, even if we’re metaphysically tied together. I’ll make sure of it.”_

_A laugh. “Hyun, Sunggyu and I can protect ourselves just fine, you know. Besides, you’re the human here.”_

_“Shut up, Hoya. Doesn’t mean I can’t protect either of you just ‘cause I’m a human.”_

_“Well, as long as you don’t die and drag the two of us down with you, that’s good enough, I guess.”_

_“Sheesh Hoya, I’m not that weak. Don’t be an ass.” A pout._

_“I’m not an ass, I’m a werepanther remember?”_

_“You know, maybe at this rate the two of you would kill each other first if you don’t stop bickering. Aish, seriously.” A chuckle, and then, “Howon-ah, if a mere human can say that, I guess neither of us should have anything to be afraid of, huh?”_

_“Well…” A pause, then a wide smile, canines showing. “I guess not.” ~~~~_

▸▸▸

 

 

They sit in silence for a long time. Eventually Woohyun can’t take it anymore.

“You got the answer to your question, didn’t you, after killing Dongwoo? L and Sungyeol were alive and well enough to come after us for revenge, so I guess it means it’s possible to kill one part of a triumvirate without the other two dying.”

His tone isn’t the most pleasant – an understatement, really – so Woohyun stops before he says something he regrets. Something like, _“I guess we were wrong in thinking it was irreversible, weren’t we?_ ”

(Was he the only one who had naïvely thought of their bond as forever? He’d always believed himself to be a realist, but Woohyun’s no longer sure. After all, he’s the one who still loves someone who left him and Hoya for thirteen years despite everything, and he’s starting to feel like he doesn’t know anything anymore.)

Clenching his jaw, Woohyun doesn’t register he’s angry until he hears teeth grinding – his – and forces himself to stop.

(He’s not even sure who he’s angry at, really. Is it at Sunggyu for not telling them this? For thinking so far as to kill Dongwoo not just because he wanted to help him but also to test out that theory? Or is it at himself for not noticing this earlier? For not knowing what to do now that Sunggyu is telling him all this?)

Sunggyu chews his lip before he replies, “…No.”

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

It’s Hoya who asks this time, but it might as well have been Woohyun, because he’s thinking the same thing. It worked, hadn’t it? Sunggyu got the answer to his question – _why_ he needs the answer, Woohyun doesn’t wants to recall because it makes his chest constrict – but then Sunggyu says –

“L shielded Sungyeol and himself when Dongwoo died. That was how they survived. If L had been a lesser vampire, less powerful, it wouldn’t have worked. Regardless, I believed it still costed L to do that, shielding the both of them.”

Something Sungyeol had said before comes to him: _“You’d think losing one of them is bad enough, but then his death left_ him _broken, and what’s the point of saving us if he’s broken himself?”_

“Shielding them broke L, didn’t it?” Woohyun asks, voice barely a whisper because he doesn’t quite trust himself to speak.

Hoya stares at him, and it takes a while for Woohyun to realise he’s trying to read his thoughts. He lets snippets of the conversation he had had with Sungyeol through their psychic link, but shuts it down before Hoya can sense his emotions. Now’s not the time.

(Not when Woohyun himself isn’t sure what he’s feeling or what to do with it.)

“Yes,” Sunggyu answers. “But that’s not the only reason. It… depends on who’s the one who’s killed in a triumvirate.”

Woohyun’s chest suddenly grows so tight, he can’t breathe, and he’s standing up before he knows what he’s doing.

“I need some air.”

 

 

Perhaps abruptly walking out of the conversation like that wasn’t the best idea, but Woohyun forces himself to stay in the kitchen until his breathing slows down to normal. Scrubbing a hand down his face, he sags against the counter.

(He’s so tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally.)

Woohyun doesn’t expect anyone to come out for him – honestly Hoya should know better than to do that; he should be staying inside and talking to Sunggyu because they’ve finally gotten a chance to hear his reasons, and honestly, that is what Woohyun should be doing too – but he can’t say he’s surprised when he feels a hand on his back. Except, when Woohyun opens his eyes, it isn’t Hoya he sees.

“…Sunggyu?”

“Hey,” he says, and it sounds so strange, the soft tone he’s using, that Woohyun stares at him unblinkingly for a while.

“You… I thought you’ll… stay in the room with Hoya… and… talk…” Woohyun’s sentence trails off; he wasn’t sure what he had wanted to say to begin with.

“We did, for a while,” Sunggyu says, fingers lightly grazing the fabric of Woohyun’s shirt, not simply touching his back but not exactly stroking it either. “I thought it’ll be better if I told you this myself –”

“Tell me what?”

Sunggyu looks at him properly, gaze turning softer but more serious, before he says, “I don’t want to die, you know.”

His eyes must have widened, because there’s a fleeting smile on Sunggyu’s lips, amused even as his eyes remain somewhat conflicted, and he’s adding, “I’m not sure of my existence, but I don’t want to die. Howon thought you probably assumed that… that I wanted to die –”

“Well, yeah, that’s what it sounds like,” Woohyun cuts in before he fully thinks through what he’s saying, and he would retract the words but Sunggyu’s already replying.

“I…I did think of it… I won’t lie to you –”

Woohyun’s breathing has barely returned to normal and now the double-time of his heart is starting again –

“But I don’t truly want to die… I just… don’t know how to feel about my existence, what I have to do as Master of the City and… I don’t know,” Sunggyu finishes, his head dropping, voice unsure.

It sounds almost like the same motif running in his head, the many questions he has – _Idon’tknowIdon’tknowIdon’tknowanythinganymore_ – that Woohyun lets out a short laugh.

“I don’t know anything either,” he mutters. “I don’t… I don’t even know what to say to this, I just –”

“You’re bottling it up,” Sunggyu comments quietly, and it’s then that Woohyun lets himself admit that maybe that’s what he has been doing.

“Yes, perhaps but –”

Sunggyu’s hand on his back stops, his other hand coming to Woohyun’s shoulder to turn Woohyun to face him. “I’m not so fragile; you don’t have to second-guess yourself with my feelings. I wouldn’t have come back and stayed if I didn’t want to, and it’s not just because I had to deal with the mess I made with Dongwoo, L and Sungyeol. I admit, I still think this whole thing is my fault but like you said, maybe the real problem was that I didn’t trust either of you enough and I want to say I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s what you want to hear.”

Woohyun doesn’t realise he has tears in his eyes until Sunggyu brings a hand to his cheek, wiping the stray drops away, and it’s then that he finally lets go, channeling all his frustration, uncertainty, tiredness and worries into tears, the guilt he has, the jealousy, the anger – _everything_. When Sunggyu steps closer to hold him, Woohyun doesn’t pull away. Instead, he finds himself reaching out, wrapping his arms around Sunggyu tentatively, and he almost wants to deny himself this – push Sunggyu away because there’s so many things unresolved between them that he’s not sure he wants to be comforted like this – but he doesn’t.

“I’m sorry,” he says, but he’s not sure what he’s apologising for. Sunggyu merely strokes his head, before he murmurs apologies himself into Woohyun’s hair.

( _I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry_. He’s not sure who’s sorry for what now, or if they should even be, but Woohyun repeats the apology in his head because he can’t think of anything else.)

It doesn’t solve anything, crying, but he feels marginally better when he’s done. He dries his face as best as he can, and Woohyun lets Sunggyu lead him back into the bedroom afterwards. And later, when Hoya motions for them all to lie down even though it’s hours before dawn, Woohyun doesn’t protest, only pulls the covers up so they would all fit under. There’re words under the tip of his tongue and thoughts he vaguely registers but he doesn’t know what, and Woohyun would think about it, analyze it, dwell too long on it, but maybe he’s more tired than he thought because the next thing he knows, he’s drifting off to sleep under the comforting weight of two different arms around his waist.

He has forgotten how this felt.

(Like home.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Woohyun finally gets to rest. He hasn't slept since the fight, if you recall. And I'm sorry he cried so much in this chapter but well... he needs to get things out. :\ And Sunggyu finally explains himself :) That Woogyu bit at the end (and Woogyuya too, short as it is) wasn't originally intended but I think it's good it happened. It means the story is heading a little closer towards the end, haha. I haven't decided how many more chapters it would have yet, but it's near the end, I think.
> 
> And ahh... this update took me a while. I spent a lot of the time writing this Hoyeol a/b/o oneshot which grew to become a 10k thing ([Vulnerabilities](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9787811)) and I hope you would read it because I put a lot of thought into it ^^. There were also other real life commitments that prevented me from writing this after I finished the oneshot, but I missed Three so much that after my school submission, I wrote this chapter in two days lol. Let me know what you think of it ~
> 
> Lastly, not related to Three, but two friends and I are organising a Infinite fic fest (Check it out here- [One Great Step: Infinite Monthly Fic Fest](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9823724/chapters/22058090)). If any one of you have prompts in mind, do go and prompt there as long as it fits the theme! And if you're a writer looking for a little writing inspiration, I hope you'll consider claiming some of the prompts later when claiming starts! It's a little project to hopefully generate more Infinite fics, so do check it out :)


	17. Changes

XVII.

Woohyun wakes up to a soft kiss on his nape, cocooned between two warm bodies, more rested than he’s been in a while. Still not fully awake, he snuggles closer to Hoya who’s in front of him, vaguely registering that the warmth on his back means Sunggyu’s awake – it would have been cold otherwise – and that means it’s probably late.

“What time is it now?” Blurrily rubbing his eyes, Woohyun feels Hoya shifts, twisting to check the bedside clock.

“Eight oh seven.”

“Ugh, we need to get up for work soon,” Woohyun mumbles. A chuckle sounds behind, and Woohyun opens his eyes properly to glare at Sunggyu.

“What?”

Sunggyu’s face is one of mild amusement, and Woohyun’s not sure when that’d happened. It doesn’t seem so long ago when they couldn’t talk to each other without feeling like they were treading around land mines.

“What’s so funny?” Woohyun asks again, vaguely aware that he sounds a little like a petulant child but he’s not fully awake enough to care.

“Nothing,” Sunggyu says, the corner of his lips curling up. “It was just such a normal and mundane thing to say.”

“Normal and mundane is good,” Hoya remarks, amused. He’s already getting up. Woohyun feels the loss of his comforting weight immediately, but he slowly sits up as well, before swinging his legs off the bed. Normal and mundane _is_ good, but normal and mundane also means work. Woohyun lingers for just a second more on their warm bed before he reluctantly stands.

 

 

Unfortunately, it seems they had spoken too soon.

The moment Woohyun walks into the living room, he spots a white envelope on the floor by their door. Hoya’s already picking it up, peeling off the wax seal, and Woohyun peers over his shoulders to read the contents, knowing it’s probably from the council because who else would leave a letter with a _wax seal_ and actually slip it under the main door instead of calling? The thing is, he forgot the council still uses Hanja, and Woohyun can’t understand a single word on that letter. Neither does Hoya, it seems, because he has barely scanned the page before he’s holding it out to Sunggyu who has just walked out.

“What does this say?”

Sunggyu takes the letter, reading silently.

“Why do they want to meet us again so soon?” Hoya prompts when Sunggyu doesn’t answer, and Woohyun realises that maybe Hoya isn’t as clueless about Hanja as he is if he understood some of the content, which is more than Woohyun can say for himself. Watching Sunggyu read the letter once more, Woohyun waits anxiously, tapping a finger against Hoya’s arm until Sunggyu finally looks up.

“They want us to meet them later tonight, because they’re offering to have me replace L on the vampire council.”

Woohyun has to blink a few times before the words register.

 

 

Sunggyu’s gone out, offered to tell Sungjong that they’ve been requested at a council meeting again since he has something else he needs to talk to the other vampire about. Woohyun had wanted to ask what he has to talk to Sungjong about, but Sunggyu ended up offering before he asked.

“’Vampire stuff’… what do you think he means?” Woohyun mumbles, digging through their fridge for something to make a stew with.

Hoya glances at him briefly before resuming his washing of the pot.

“No clue. Could be anything.” Hoya frowns, filling the pot with water which he sets over the stove. “Anyway, he’ll probably tell us later. Or we can ask him.”

Woohyun dumps the zucchini, bean sprouts and bean paste on the counter, leaning his cheek against Hoya’s shoulder. “Well, I hope so.”

“He will.”

Hoya sounds more confident than Woohyun feels. He tells Hoya as much as he washes the vegetable while Hoya seasons the stew.

“Well, I did spend most of last night talking to him while you were asleep,” Hoya replies, waiting for Woohyun to finish cutting the vegetable before he takes them.

“What did you talk about?” He tries not to sound overly curious, but he probably fails because Hoya makes a face at him, before kissing his lips lightly.

“A little about what’s changed while he wasn’t here, but it was mostly about you, actually.” Woohyun pauses while washing the cutting board, and Hoya kisses him again, longer and a little more softly this time. “Don’t look so surprised. We’re concerned about you.”

Woohyun has to remind himself to continue washing. “I… I’m fine.” He sees Hoya raise an eyebrow, before amending, “I’ll be fine. I just… need some time.”

It’s not really a lie. Or at least, Woohyun hopes it isn’t. It has always taken him time to come to terms with himself for killing, no matter the reason or how necessary it had been at that moment.  He doesn’t think it’ll be any different this time. Unfortunately, that means he won’t get better any time soon, but at least he managed to sleep last night. That’s already an improvement from the night before. Woohyun tells Hoya that, leaving out the bits about how he still hears the gunshots he had fired in the back of his head or smells the ghost of charred flesh when he doesn’t block it out.

Hoya looks skeptical. But he doesn’t ask further, just says, “Well, you’re the one who told Sunggyu to rely on us, so you better take your own advice and do the same.

Woohyun flicks some water at him. “Don’t be dumb.”

Hoya covers the pot from the stray drops but doesn’t dodge it himself.

“We’re all dumb for the people we love,” he mumbles, way too softly but Woohyun hears it anyway. He doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just runs a head up Hoya’s back, before lightly squeezing his shoulder.

“I know.” It’s mouthed against Hoya’s shoulder, barely audible. A moment later, Woohyun adds in a louder voice, “I’m hungry. Let’s hurry up and eat so we can get ready for the meeting, hmm?”

Hoya’s response is to turn the heat up on the stove. “This still needs to cook, dumbass.”

 

 

Sunggyu comes back two hours later, Woohyun and Hoya having already chosen the outfits for the meeting. Sunggyu only takes one look at what’s laid out on the bed, before he says –

“Actually, maybe the two of you should just dress normally.”

Woohyun looks up from where he’s shaving his belly, a question on his lips, but Hoya’s faster.

“Won’t the council be unhappy about that?”

Sunggyu sighs. “Probably. But… it’s been bothering me for a while now that the dress code doesn’t really reflect that we’re equals…” He trails off when Hoya grins, lopsided with his canines showing, and Woohyun watches Sunggyu consider for a moment before he leans forward to kiss the smile off Hoya’s face.

“Aww, equals huh,” Woohyun jokes, letting his mental barriers down partly so they won’t think he’s being sarcastic. He isn’t (and he isn’t jealous of their kiss, really), but his lips twitch up a little when Hoya stops sucking Sunggyu’s face off and pecks his cheek instead. Sunggyu looks at him like he isn’t sure what Woohyun’s thinking still, and Woohyun ends up walking over to him. “I appreciate the sentiment, but I really don’t think angering the council over something as avoidable as dress codes is worth the ideological purity,” he says, a hand sliding up Sunggyu’s cheek, placing a gentle kiss on his now reddened lips. Sunggyu leans into it, and Woohyun takes the opportunity to kiss him harder, almost tasting Hoya on his tongue, but he forces himself to pull back before it gets heated.

“Maybe I can dress down instead,” Sunggyu suggests a dazed moment later, after Woohyun’s hand has slipped away.

Hoya laughs, picking up the outfit Woohyun had chosen for him earlier. “As much as I think we would both appreciate you in tight leather pants and nothing else, I don’t think we need all three of us to look like strippers.”

 

 

They don’t actually dress like strippers (Hoya’s prone to hyperbole), but the pants Hoya has on has more holes than is really necessary, and Woohyun’s top is sheer enough that he has to put on a jacket for the drive there to avoid public indecency, only taking it off before they have to head into their house. It’s already straightened up and prepped for a meeting, no signs of the clutter from the three of them living there the past few weeks. Woohyun would be more amazed by the work Hoya’s werepanthers has done to get the place ready in the short time, but he’s already seen them clean the mess that was their living room over the duration of a shower, so he just reminds himself to send the pack something nice later.

When they get down to the basement, it’s the same two vampires from last time, and a third he doesn’t recognise. Hoya’s gotten a longer couch for them this time, enough to seat each of them on either side of Sunggyu. Woohyun turns slightly, catching Hoya’s gaze long enough to show he’s noticed.

 _My legs hurt the last time_ , is all Hoya comments through the link. Woohyun almost rolls his eyes but he remembers the council is present in time and catches himself.

_Old man._

Sunggyu casts both of them a brief glance, and Woohyun wisely shuts up over the link. They’ve more important things to be talking about. Although they had discussed what they’re going to do with the council’s proposition on the drive here, Woohyun’s not sure how exactly they are going to inform the council of their choice. It’s not one the council would take well, and he’s counting on Sunggyu’s usual persuasiveness to smooth things over, but they’ve barely settled into their seats when Sunggyu suddenly says –

“As honored as I am to be considered for the council, I would not be accepting the offer to replace L.”

The woman sitting in the middle raises a thin, arched brow.

“I hope you understand that this is a rare offer. We are only giving it to you because you’ve managed to successfully kill him despite how powerful he was.”

Sunggyu’s voice comes out measured and pleasant although Woohyun feels the tension in his stiff posture. “It was technically my human servant and animal-to-call who killed him, not me, but regardless, I am busy with my duties as Master of the City as it is.”

This time it’s the third man, the new vampire, who speaks. “Are you implying that you would not give up your position as Master of the City and that is why you are unwilling to join the council?”

Woohyun feels Sunggyu’s fingers dig into his thigh at the question. Wrapping his hands over Sunggyu’s, Woohyun tries to provide some form of moral support, knowing without looking that Hoya’s probably doing the same on the other side.

“Is that a problem?” Sunggyu’s voice still doesn’t betray the nervousness he holds, but Woohyun feels the antsiness seeping over their link. He’s not sure why Sunggyu’s being more aggressive than usual, but he thinks it’ll be a bad idea to point it out now. Besides, the council would frown upon either him or Hoya speaking up when it’s “not their place”. So Woohyun just sits there, trying not to cast more nervous thoughts through their opened link while hoping they’ll get out of this meeting somehow.

It takes too long, the three vampires staring at them – likely exchanging thoughts between themselves, if the rumor that council vampires are powerful enough to do that without a link is true – but eventually the woman says with a tight smile, fangs glaringly – _deliberately_ – obvious behind her neatly painted red lips –

“No, not at all.”

 

 

Woohyun doesn’t realise how tense all three of them are until the council is gone. Sunggyu slumps into the couch, eyes closed.

“Okay that was tedious, but was it _that_ bad?” Hoya asks lightly, sweeping Sunggyu’s hair off his forehead. _Was it bad enough for you to be so wounded up?_ is what Woohyun hears in Hoya’s question although he doesn’t actually say it aloud.

Sunggyu doesn’t say anything, just lies there with his brows slowly furrowing.

“Well, anyway, they’ve left so we’re good now,” Woohyun adds when Sunggyu still doesn’t reply. He picks up Sunggyu’s hand, then reaches for Hoya’s so he can hold both between his own. Exchanging a look with Hoya, Woohyun wonders if they should be concerned. Sure, the council meeting was exhausting, probably even more so for Sunggyu since he has to answer for all of them, but surely he can manage at least a word of response. Woohyun’s about to prod when Sunggyu finally exhales, opening his eyes.

“Sorry, I just... I was thinking of something else. Something I talked to Sungjong about earlier.”

Woohyun has to remind himself not to squeeze their hands between his too hard just because he’s curious. He waits.

“The meeting reminded me how powerful most of the council vampires are,” Sunggyu sighs, “And how they may not fall for it.”

“Fall for _what_?” Hoya asks.

“Our deaths.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been 2 months since the last update. I'm sorry it took a while, I was busy with school for the last month but I'm hoping to write more now. I won't make any promises about when the next chapter would be since that has never worked out lol. But I'll try to write more while the story is fresh in my head. It was so hard to start this chapter because there was a long break in between :/ And I do want to complete this story _a lot_.
> 
> Also, it's Woohyun's first solo album's first anniversary today! I didn't intend for the update to be on this date but it kind of just worked out that way. ^^ Anyway, hope you like this chapter and I'll love to know what you think~ I'm also on [tumblr](https://stillcian1675.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/cian1675) if you want to talk to me there :)


	18. A new beginning

XVIII.

“…our… _deaths_?”

He feels stupid repeating what Sunggyu says, but Woohyun doesn’t know what he had meant.

(Can’t think past the sudden irrational panic rising in his chest.)

“Our _fake_ deaths,” Sunggyu says, and a bit of Woohyun’s tenseness deflates. Unfortunately, he’s still as confused as before.

“What are we talking about here, why are we faking our deaths?”

Sunggyu shifts slightly.

“I was thinking that I… don’t really want to handle the duties of Master of the City anymore.”

Woohyun makes a face before he can stop himself, and Sunggyu laughs a little, short and dry.

“I mean, I know I wasn’t around to do that for the last thirteen years, but what I meant was, I don’t want to continue doing this. Taking care of the vampires and wereanimals in Seoul… it’s a large responsibility and a more ruthless one than I can take…”

He pauses, fiddling with the free hand that Woohyun isn’t holding, before adding in a smaller voice, “It took me a while, but I think this is the solution, faking our deaths so Sungjong can take over as Master of the City instead. It’s not like I can just suddenly stop feeling guilty about what I had to do, but I can at least stop doing it if it’s affecting me so much.”

It makes sense, what Sunggyu’s saying, but Woohyun’s chest still feels a little tight. On the other side of the couch, Hoya contemplates for a moment, before asking –

“Can’t you just pass the position over to Sungjong? Without the dying, I mean.”

Sunggyu laughs, the humour not quite reaching his eyes.

“I wish it was so simple.”

He sighs, leaning against the back of the couch, head tilting towards the ceiling.

“The only way to take over the position of Master of the City is to kill the existing one, to prove that you are capable enough for the job.”

Woohyun can’t see Sunggyu’s expression well from this position, but he wonders if he’s thinking about how he had become Master of the City.

(Who he had to kill for it.)

He’s thinking this through, when Hoya says, “So, you were discussing this with Sungjong earlier... asking him if he wants to take over…?”

“And to see if he has any ideas on how we can fake our deaths believably,” Sunggyu replies. Woohyun’s still thinking, wondering why the constricted feeling hasn’t gone away when he realises –

“Why didn’t you discuss this with us first?”

Sunggyu’s hand is suddenly stiff in his.

“I… I didn’t…” His brows knit together and if Sunggyu was alive Woohyun thinks his heartbeat would be speeding up right now. “Woohyun–I… I didn’t intend to. I just wanted to talk this over with Sungjong first because he knows how vampire politics work and –”

Sunggyu stops suddenly. Then, he blinks, slow and deliberate like he’s coming to a realisation.

“Shit. That’s what I’ve been doing all the time, haven’t I? Making decisions for all of us without asking.”

There’s what looks like regret on Sunggyu’s face, and though Woohyun’s not particularly happy that Sunggyu’s doing this again, the thin line of Hoya’s lips reminds him that they’re still new to this.

(New to being back together, new to being a working triumvirate again.)

So Woohyun just pinches the bridge of his nose, sighing.

“Yeah, you… tend to do that. But since it’s already done, maybe just don’t do it again next time.” Sunggyu shifts uncomfortably at that, so Woohyun adds the next bit in a softer voice, “For now, why don’t you tell us what you’ve gone over with Sungjong?”

 

 

What Sunggyu had come up with Sungjong goes something like this: Sunggyu will, for some reason, lose his trust in Hoya and Woohyun’s way of running the city, gradually entrusting their responsibilities to Sungjong. Sunggyu would then behave like he now trusts his second-in-command more than his animal-to-call and human servant. Later, sensing his opportunity, Sungjong will make use of Sunggyu’s trust to lure him somewhere remote where he’ll kill him, and then he’ll kill Hoya and Woohyun too, thereby securing his place as Master of the City. For good measure, Sungjong is supposed to burn all of their bodies so he can be sure they’re well and truly dead. And of course, seeing how their deaths are actually faked, burning their “bodies” would make it so that there wouldn’t be any corpses for the council to investigate should they get suspicious.

“That’s…”

“That’s not exactly a very convincing plan,” Woohyun mumbles offhandedly before Hoya gets to finish his sentence.

From the reflection of the rearview mirror, Hoya gives him a pinched look as if to say, _now’s not the time_. Woohyun’s pretty sure that if Hoya wasn’t driving, he’ll have gotten a kick in a calf or a jab in his side for his comment. Sucking in his lower lip, Woohyun decides to keep silent and let Hoya continue instead.

Hoya glances at Sunggyu in the backseat then at Woohyun, before finally saying, “Well, Woohyun’s not wrong. There are kinks in the plan, but I’m sure we can work something out.”

“Kinks,” Woohyun repeats softly, turning the word over. The plan Sunggyu just suggested has some obvious _loopholes_ , not just minor kinks. Or maybe, Woohyun’s just seeing everything negatively because he hadn’t been involved in the making of this plan. Taking in a deep breath, Woohyun tries to look at this more reasonably – he shouldn’t be an ass now, unintentionally or not – but then he realises everyone’s gone silent.

“…What?”

His voice comes out defensive but Woohyun doesn’t think his little comment is enough to warrant such attention. At least, not until Hoya raises a brow slowly.

 _Kinks_ , he mouths with the tiniest twitch of his lips. It doesn’t escape Woohyun’s notice that Hoya’s looking at his neck. Woohyun feels his cheeks heat up and it only gets worse when he realises that Sunggyu has a deliberately placid face on.

“I-I just meant that your damn plan has major loopholes,” Woohyun quickly clarifies. He tries not to sound accusatory this time though it probably comes out more embarrassed. Sunggyu opens his mouth but then closes it quickly later. Eventually he nods slightly from the backseat, a tiny shrug of his shoulders that’s vaguely apologetic.

“It was all I could think up of at that time. If you have anything else to suggest…”

Sunggyu leaves the rest unsaid, but Woohyun can sort of fill in the gaps. Technically, what he had said isn’t really an apology – an apology for making decisions alone without consulting them again – but Woohyun’s not sure if an apology is what he’s looking for either. Still, it is a peace offering of sorts, and Woohyun can tell this is Sunggyu trying. Old habits are hard to break out of, after all, and Sunggyu has the excuse of having lived a few hundred years with his. It’s not like Woohyun has completely weaned himself off all of his own bad habits either – he still lets his emotions get the better of him – so he takes the peace offering for what it is.

“Okay…” Woohyun chews the inside of his lower lip, thinking through what he wants to say before he voices it this time. “You know what, plans always start off shitty. How about we go back first, then see if we can think of something better. Or, you know, if that doesn’t work, maybe we can just figure out how to get around the issues in the current plan.”

Sunggyu looks at him with slightly wide eyes, but he quickly agrees.

“Yeah, okay, let’s do that.”

 

 

They run through a few different ideas over the next week, but in the end, what they settle on is a modified version of what Sunggyu had thought up with Sungjong.

“You’re telling me that Sunggyu entrusts responsibilities to me because I _seduce_ him. You’re telling me to… be intimate with Sunggyu.”

The disgust in Sungjong’s voice would be funny if this wasn’t the best shot they have. Woohyun makes a face, half a grimace and half apologetic. Over the week, the three of them – Woohyun, Hoya and Sunggyu – had gone through countless possible plans to fake their deaths. Some were more terrible than others, but at least all the ideas were thought out and discussed together. It was a strange process, learning to work together again as three instead of just one or two, but it got easier as they went along, chipping in ideas, pointing out loopholes and falling asleep at times when brain juices run low. It’s a learning curve, for Sunggyu as much as it is for Woohyun or even Hoya. Eventually though, after running through too many faulty plans, Woohyun had to admit there were more merits to Sunggyu’s initial idea than he gave it, as long as they sorted out one major loophole.

“Well, there has to be a convincing reason why Sunggyu suddenly decides to trust his second-in-command over his animal-to-call and human servant, especially when the latter two are metaphysically tied to him,” Woohyun says.

An odd queasy feeling settles in his belly once the words leave his mouth even though he was the one who had suggested this plan to begin with. Love (or lust), flimsy rationale as it may be, was still the most plausible reason for Sunggyu to suddenly switch allegiance. After all, many great men have been blinded by it so what’s one more?

“Well, not intimate,” Hoya corrects, cutting in before Woohyun adds anything else. “Just... the illusion of it. A few small touches in the eye of the public, some well-timed getaways and a couple of planted rumors should be enough to do that.”

Sungjong looks a little less disgusted, but only slightly.

“And you two… are telling me to do… that. Pretend to seduce Sunggyu even though –”

Sungjong’s words cut off abruptly, like he had suddenly realised that he’s treading touchy territories. Woohyun sighs, decides to help him finish the sentence –

“Even though the three of us and our relationship are kind of new and uncertain right now?” Hoya and Sunggyu looks slightly pinched at that and Woohyun hates that they’ll have to do this, but he also knows this is about as good of a plan as they can get. So he simply says, “Yes.”

 

 

◂◂◂

_“You don’t have to do this, you know?” A side glance, a look of what could be concern._

_“I know.” A short pause, and then – “Look, Hoya, I know I don’t have to do this, but Sunggyu did save my life and if agreeing to the Second Mark allows him to be stronger to fight against our mutual …enemy, I can do this.”_

_“You don’t have to. I mean, you don’t_ need _to. Heck, it’s not even your responsibility, you’re just a detective.”_

 _A long inhale, and then, “…I know I don’t have to, but… I_ want _to.”_

▸▸▸

 

 

“You always did have that habit of putting the bigger picture first,” Sunggyu says after Sungjong’s left. Hoya’s just gone to the living room to take a call from his pack and Woohyun’s the only one left in the kitchen with Sunggyu.

“…Maybe,” Woohyun answers, about as truthful of an answer as he can give at the moment. He thinks Sunggyu means Woohyun putting the big picture above his own interest, but that’s not what Sunggyu had said, so he tries not to assume.

Sunggyu eyes him unblinkingly, and Woohyun returns the gaze, no longer as uncomfortable with the weight of it as he used to be. After some time, Sunggyu says, “We don’t have to go through with this plan if you’re uncomfortable with it, you know. We can still try to think of something else.”

 _But you look pained every day being Master of the City_ , Woohyun thinks, an observation that’s glaringly obvious now that he knows what to look out for. And he had been looking, the whole of last week. He doesn’t say that though.

“It’s just a short while,” is what Woohyun says instead. “I can handle it. Besides, you’re not just… ‘ _cheating_ ’ on me with Sungjong. You’re technically cheating on Hoya as well. So you know, it’s not just me we should be worrying about.”

He lets out a laugh, tries to disperse the tension, but it sounds slightly off. Sunggyu’s brows crease in the centre.

“I… We…”

“Or… are you uncomfortable with this plan?” Woohyun asks quietly when Sunggyu doesn’t finish his sentence. “Because if you are, then we don’t have to go through with it.”

“No, I’m okay.” Sunggyu laughs, then adds softly, “This won’t be the first time I’ve had to pretend to be someone’s lover for whatever reason. It’s not me I’m worried about. It’s just…”

“Us? Don’t worry about us. Hoya and I are fine,” Woohyun says. “It’s all part of the plan, we…” _We don’t really think you’re betraying us_ , Woohyun thinks, but doesn’t say. Instead, he takes a deep breath, then tries to smile a little. “Maybe at this point we should say thank you instead of trying to be sorry at every turn.”

Sunggyu looks at him for a moment, then cracks a small smile.

“Yeah, maybe.” A pause, and then, softly, he says, “Thank you, Woohyun-ah.”

Woohyun reaches for his hand, cradles it between his own. He finds that the words come more easily now.

“You’re welcome.”

 

 

“I saw that,” Hoya murmurs in his ear later as Woohyun’s getting into bed.

“Saw what?”

“You and Sunggyu. Saying thanks and holding hands.”

Woohyun turns around on the bed, presses a kiss to Hoya’s cheek softly.

“Hmm. Jealous?”

Woohyun feels more than hears Hoya’s low chuckle.

“Nope. I’m happy you guys are talking to each other.” Hoya’s hands run along Woohyun’s side, then rests on his hips.

“We talk to each other,” Woohyun mumbles, burrowing his face into the curve of Hoya’s shoulder.

“Hmm.” Hoya’s hand finds its way under Woohyun’s shirt, rubs tiny circles on the bare skin. “I’m just glad you guys are talking to each other better now.”

Woohyun hums, too lazy to say anything more now that he’s safely cocooned in Hoya’s arms and warm. There’s a dip, a shift of weight on the bed, and then he hears Sunggyu.

“Who’s talking to who better?”

Hoya shifts against him, and a while later, Woohyun feels cool palms covering Hoya’s hand and his hip.

“Us,” Hoya says simply and the last thing Woohyun registers before he falls asleep is the sound of soft pecks against warm skin.

 

 

It takes two months to set everything up. Woohyun thinks that’s a little rushed; too short a timeframe to convince everyone that Sunggyu had switched allegiance. But the longer they drag this out, the longer things have to go wrong, people picking apart the fake relationship they’re crafting between the Master of the City and his second-in-command. So Woohyun goes along with it, plays along when Sunggyu leads Sungjong to his office, away from the main club areas on nights when he’s around, acting hurt with a mask of nonchalance a human servant is supposed to have. When he gets sent to the were headquarters to “assist Hoya”, Woohyun goes with a look of frustration and reluctance, all the while glaring at Sunggyu and Sungjong. Hoya gets his fair share of pretending as well, but the hardest job goes to the two vampires, acting like they’re off on trysts, sharing covert eye contact and lingering touches when in public. It doesn’t take long before the vampires and weres alike start to talk, first hushed whispers behind closed doors, then more overtly, almost directly under Woohyun’s nose. It’s all going according to plan, and it doesn’t take long before the night they’ve been waiting for arrives.

Sungjong has a match in his hand, doing a last cursory sweep of the house that Sunggyu, Woohyun and Hoya had stayed in the past few months. There are already three corpses matching their physiques, one left in the basement, shirt unbuttoned, and two tied to chairs in the bedroom upstairs. The car they’ve readied is in the back, discreet and boring, their necessities packed in the truck.

“Ready?” Sungjong asks, before he runs the match along the rough side of the box, all set to burn down the last few decades of the triumvirate’s existence.

“Yes,” Sunggyu says, and Woohyun feels him squeeze his hand, probably Hoya’s too, the three of them standing shoulder to shoulder behind the new Master of the City for Seoul. Sungjong drops the match.

Everything goes up in flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I accidentally clicked "post" while I was still editing this, so sorry if any of you got double notifications due to that. Anyway, Three is pretty much done, we're left with just the epilogue now. :D It'll be woogyuya after their getaway plan and hopefully it'll be something fluffy/smutty... we'll see ;)
> 
> Also, it took me quite a while to finish this up, but I'm glad Three got so far, and we're really almost at the end now! A big thanks to Chelsie, who's always there to hear me out on this fic, give me feedback, and cheer me on when writing gets hard. And to all you lovely readers, especially the ones who leave me comments on what you think, thank you as well!
> 
> As usual, I'll love to know what you think~
> 
> P.S.: And in case any of you missed it, I wrote a [Hogyu side story](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11198091) of how they first met.


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